"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 10:32:41 -0400, DSK wrote:
Kind of makes me wonder... why haven't we seen any tungsten keel bulbs
in really hi-dollar boats, like say for example the America's Cup?

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It's written into the sail racing rules that you can't use any ballast
material with a density greater than lead. That rule was implemented
back in the 70s or early 80s to head off several designs that planned
to use depleted uranium as a keel material.

Open 60's do use tungsten bulbs (or at least tungsten ingots embedded into
lead bulbs because it is so hard to machine the tungsten). One of the "Pen
Duick" boats DID use U-238 in the keel.

I figure if you have a big enough Open 60 budget you just use gold. Far
more dense and you can always take it off after the race and re-sell it for
about what you paid for it. Of course if you're like most Open 60's you
would have that risk of loosing the keel or bulb


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Evan Gatehouse

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