Unfortunately I'm in Maryland, the freight costs would probably make the total
cost prohibitive. Otherwise I would be very interested.

In answering questions on several other replies:

The point about trim is valid but the penciled in changes to the factory
blueprints have the weight distribution (it specifies what weight to be put
where) pretty much matches that of the external ballast keel, and several other
owners who removed the ballast to lighten the boat for afternoon racing reported
that the boat was excessively tender but trim was OK.

I'm wondering if the design was originally drawn up for lead and the yard
substituted iron, and went back to the designer after complaints for advice.
The factory blueprints don't spec the weight of the external ballast, but the
internal ballast is detailed. The boat was built by Werf Gusto in Holland in
1961 and designed by Bill Tripp. The blueprints are in Dutch but the internal
ballast is penciled in English.

The shape of the external ballast is about 4' or so long, around 8" high, and 8"
wide with a 1" centerboard slot making it look like a stretched 'U', so cautions
about alloys for fins (with their high bending loads) I don't think would apply.
I was going to pull the keel anyway to inspect/replace the keel bolts because of
the amount of rust at the hull joint.

To drain the lead from the melting pot I was thinking about something I read
about by Larry Pardey. He used a cast iron bathtub and had a plumbing pipe
elbow welded to the drain. Screwed into the elbow was an 'L' shaped piece of
water pipe. He used a chain to lower one end of the 'L' to start the pour, and
raised it to stop it, with the 'L' rotating by the threads at the elbow. His
book about classic boat construction is one of the few references I found.

JJ


On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 16:40:52 GMT, "Lew Hodgett"
wrote:


"James Johnson" writes:
It's hard finding lead keel casting information. If you don't mind what
did you
use to melt the lead?
snip

I don't know where you are located, but I no longer need my melting
equipment including ingot molds that produce 30 # pigs.

Have 2, 500,000 BTU propane burners and a melting pot that holds about 900
lbs.

If interested, I'm in Los Angeles.

Lew



James Johnson
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