How to tell how much lead is in a sail boat?

[Ttbbw]

I possibly have access to an older retired sail boat and was wondering how to tell, if anyone knows or knows how to get a close estimate, how much lead would be in the ballast of it? It is a rather large boat and I have the equipment needed to cut it up and retrieve the lead and to remove the unwanted leftovers from it but just don't know if its going to be worth it as it is not free but I think it may be cheap enough to profit with lead amounts from it if it has enough lead in it, I just don't know how much or how to tell how much might be in it....can anyone help? Thanks

[xd4584]

If you have the make and model you can usually google the ballast size and material. Not all of them are lead

[Jim]

I would start with getting the manufacturer name, model name and length of the boat. With that, I would try to contact the manufacturer and ask for the ballast weight of this particular model/length. If that didn't work, I would Google "ballast weight of (insert nomenclature) sailboat".

Just about any information you could think of is available. Sometimes it takes a while to find it, ya' gotta' dig for it.

[Ttbbw]

Thanks guys! I guess I'm going to have to go and take a look at it and see if I can get any information off of it....it's been sitting outside in the weather for a really long time, so I'm not sure if its still got any markings left on it, but I'm going to try! Hopefully it is lead and not something else for weight!

[David2011]

Ttbbw,

Keels are usually lead, cast iron or some very large boats have concrete keels with who-knows-what added. I read of one keel that blew up when a worker was grinding off old bottom paint and hit a bomb that had been tossed into the wet cement for additional weight. If a magnet won't stick and it has a fairly thin trailing edge it's probably good lead. Concrete keels are usually long fore to aft and not very deep. Deep, high aspect keels as found on race boats are usually lead with antimony. Run of the mill cruising boat keels are usually not as deep as race boats and may be softer or pure lead. Internal keels as found on trawlers and full keeled cruising sailboats, if made of lead, are usually soft lead. Good luck!

David

[nwellons]

If it is permissible, take a cordless drill and take a couple of core samples.

[cajun shooter]

That is exactly what I was going to suggest when I read your OP. Small drill bit will give you all the info needed.

[DukeInFlorida]

I've done a couple of these now, and a general rule is about a hundred pounds per foot of sailboat.

One of the boats we salvaged was a 32 footer, and yielded a 3200 pound keel.

We chopped it up with a chain saw. Lots of posts here for processing tips.

BTW, the lead we got in both instances was PURE lead! No reason for the foundry to put expensive metals in the lead for a sailboat keel.