The choice is your whether you melt the lead pellets or use epoxy. At the
end, I do not get anything out of it

I myself as a responsible sailor can only suggest a procedure that is proven
and known to be safe in shallow water, heavy seas, strong gales and ocean
sailing. Conversely, if your boat is only used inland around the buoys in
front of the yacht club or your favourite beach the safety priorities are
not the same.




wrote in message
oups.com...
Melting them to pour into the keel cavity requires great care, courage,
forethought and 'guts', and may not buy you much.

Please consider: (I assume this is an internally ballasted boat
sitting upright on stands on-the-hard) You'll need to build strong
support frame inside the hull to accommodate the (assume) propane
burner and kettle directly over the cavity (or jury rig some type of
piping to direct the flow). Lead melts at about 650 degrees. Are you
*sure* that a large mass at this temperature will not
distort/burn/melt/deform your hull material?

Yes, you'll get a higher density if you pour the lead, but epoxy
encapsulation may be *much* safer, and the ultimate performance
difference (of the lead ballast sitting 2-5% higher) will likely be
un-noticable. The stories of holed vessels loosing their lead shot
ballast as it all drained out the bottom may be true, but an epoxy
encapsulation would have absolutely prevented this apocryphal tale.

Mike Worrall
Los Angeles