On Jun 5, 2005, at 9:18 PM, Craig F. Honshell wrote:
I'm hoping we'll get to see pics of this boat if you buy her, Rachel ... She sounds unique ... Iron shouldn't be much of a problem for an external ballast keel, should it? --Craig
Okay, I promise to send photos if it all works out :-) As far as iron for the keel goes, I think that the main issue is just that it's not as heavy per the same size chunk, ie. less dense. In the case of the boat I'm talking about, the designed ballast ratio is pretty high (near 50%), so even if it's a bit less with the iron (not sure if they just used the same size iron pig as the lead that was originally planned for or if they recalculated), it's still probably more than adequate. From all reports they sail well, so it worked out okay in any case. I think the iron can also get a bit of surface rust that lead wouldn't be prone to, but all-in-all probably not as much trouble as something like a centerboard, where you have the issue of trying to keep it "thin" over the years, or as encapsulated ballast, where you have the "rusts and swells" possibility. --- Rachel PS Craig, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but your posts never have an "Re:" at the beginning of them, which is kind of confusing at times, because it always looks as though you've started the thread(s) -- even if you're just responding to them. I don't notice that with anyone else's posts, so I wonder if it's some kind of mail setting you could adjust?