Lead Keels and The Facts

Lead ballast keels come in a variety of construction and alloys. Early limited production and custom sailboats used mostly poured lead ballast keels in poorly inconsistent molds that consisted of scrap lead and alloys all over the place. These were bolted to the keel boss or hull with large silicon bronze or stainless steel bolts. In all my years of experience I’ve found many of these crude keels to as close as any to very soft 1:30 lead. They can be a treasure.

There are also ballast keels which are poured into hollow fiberglass envelopes. Envelope keels are very common if not ubiquitous in Taiwan, Korea and Singapore. They are the cheapest and most unreliable sources for lead as they can include scrap steel, iron, etc dumped into hollow keel with hot lead and fiberglass resin to bond it together. You do not want this crap. Period.

Finally we have production boats with ballast keels that are made by keel companies who specialize in large lead castings that perfectly fit a hull underbody design with bolts precisely stationed so that these big keels mate up perfectly to hulls drilled to accept them. There are only a few of these companies around but the demand is slowing down so they are busy enough. In order to cast keels uniformly and insure perfect mating these companies use between 1.5.- 2.0% antimony in order to control shrinkage and though this is no friend of us bullet casters the percentage with most keels in not enough to cause performance problems.

Locating, handling and breaking down lead ballast keels is another chapter

Good luck be safe

Rick

i sure wish I could find one good old rig.. lots of boats up here, but the ones I encounter not abandoned and being used still. hard to find one that would make the job pay up here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by garbler

In order to cast keels uniformly and insure perfect mating these companies use between 1.5.- 2.0% antimony in order to control shrinkage and though this is no friend of us bullet casters the percentage with most keels in not enough to cause performance problems.



Rick

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forgive my ignorance, i would think a known amount of antimony in pure lead would add hardness and value ?

it would harden it some... but i love to be able to start my alloy with dead soft.. easy to add something to alloy to make it harder, but harder to take out a alloy ingredient.

Three adjacent waterways, Indian River, Banana River, and Sykes Creek, and the annual "blow by" from hurricanes gives rise to many sunk and "appear to be" abandoned sail boats. There are at least four derelict vessels near the causeways I frequent. I have thought to inquire with the FWC about salvage, but need neither the work nor the lead (if any) myself.

I got a keel a few years ago that was made of cast blocks all stacked together and pined with large stainless rods. Most of the blocks were regular brick and paver shapes and also nearly pure. But the outside of the keel was made of blocks about the size of a lino pig and cast to have corresponding notches so they interlocked. They also shattered when struck with a sledge hammer, lino maybe? It was one of the most interesting keels I have ever seen, also very easy to take apart, move and store. I will see if I can find some pictures.

Thats good information, Thanks for sharing it with us!

I've never worked on a keel, or even seen one that was available. You'all remember what I have said before, "Big scores= big work"! You need the ways and means to deal with it. To load, haul, unload and to handle it is more that some of us can handle.

But a keel would build your startup pretty quick!