loose lead ballast - the arguement for filling the void.
Theis,
If yer talking about a delicate watch or a coffee pot, expansion is an issue.
If the lead ballast in 338 was dropped in at shop temperature (80 degrees) 40 years ago and is now suspended in liquid (40 to 70 degrees) - if anything it has shrunk a 1/16 of in inch in length, 1/128 of an inch in width.
Being a massive chunk of metal I can't imagine (I can't imagine a lot of things) a ton of lead changing its dimensions very much. The change in temperature to get the lead to change dimension would have to be significant - let's say 100 degrees from datum.
When would that happen?
I think that encapsulating the lead (non-scientifically) is perfectly safe. (Of course I do, since I did it!)
If the boat is going to stand on its keel anytime in the future it would be a great deal better for the weight of the boat to sit on a SOLID foundation. That's just my opinion.
There is certainly more arguement for immovable ballast if the boat will ever spend time on one tack or in bad wave action as a cruiser. From the standpoint of running aground and damaging the encapsulated ballast keel area it may eliminate leak potential if the hull gets gouged. Doesn't guarantee it, just increases margin. This is an area that cannot be repaired from the inside.
I also have the feeling that if there is any environmental expanding and contracting the whole boat is going to be doing it. Lead is a non-corrosive, pretty inert, element unless you've turned it into a battery by carrying acid around in your bilge. Then you'd have a bloating problem :D
Something to seriously think about:
I've gotten some Sanitred product to test on the boat. One of the products is a LIQUID polyurethane that will cure at ANY THICKNESS. (Will set up in the container like epoxy.) Maybe this rubber which cures tuff but pliable would be just the filler for the spaces between the lead and the hull in your boat. To preserve an A/C, I think it is important to keep water out of the laminate* - along with the reasons mentioned above if the boat goes offshore. There can't be any arguement for doing nothing about it....when you are renovating and have the boat out.
*I also argue in favor of SEALING (barrier coating) below the waterline with epoxy or vinylester outside and inside.
There are NO ONGOING TESTS ON 40 YEAR OLD LAMINATES that I am aware of. It is prudent to keep water (especially salt water) out of polyester laminates until such tests are published. We are dealing with first-ever materials in first-ever applications that never have been adequately explored in terms of longevity, soaked or dry, stressed or not stressed. :eek:
How long will a plastic classic last?
no insight, damn!
Some time ago found on net something about tests done by the Navy on some old glass barges they had presumably still floating around somewhere.
They were still in good shape - probably had laminates 6" thick.
But have you heard of any controlled long term experiments on polyester/glass structures?
Me neither. I would think, tho, that the A/Cs are made of 'pre-engineered' materials ie are thicker and simpler and less adulterated.
Would be great if tests were made on hull laminate from the '50s and early '60s from a sailboat headed for the chainsaw. Tests designed to show bending and twisting strengths, continual immersion, salt and marine life intrusion, "crystalization". separation or delaminating resistence, shock loads, point loads, etc.
OR PUT THE WHOLE BOAT THRU OUTRAGEOUS TESTING. Drive it at 8 knots into pilings or a concrete wall. CRASH TESTS. (I'd personally like to find out how a deck to hull butt joint lasts for 40 years, Not the Triton.) No, you're correct, we want to find out about the aging plastic and fiberglass!
Good Ole Boat might fund the study. Maybe there are some funds available. Maybe Pearson could be persuaded to fund third party engineered tests of an early Triton or Ariel? We are rapidly approaching the half century anniversary of production glass boats.
I dun know, can't just ASSUME a plastic classic is going to go on forever, right? You know plastic is an organic compound, it's going to compost sometime.
You got something there, Mike! Let's make an AGM! :D
Have to cut off the polyester lid from the lead (can't be stuck on there too good), lay on the stuffing from an old sleeping bag, drill in some terminal posts, pour on a couple gallons white vinegar, and seal it back up, Gottcher self a POWER cell, ma friend! Last a hunnert years!
"When rosy plumelets tuft the Larch"
That line from Tennyson, a voyager in the ocean of song.
A biologist writes:
"... Though it grows well on a limestone subsoil, it is on sloping mountain sides, where the oldest rocks of the earth's crust crumble into crystalline fragments over some brawling beck that tumble through the glen, that the Larch is seen in its greatest beauty. ...."
How often does a biologist resin poetic about a conifer? His/her alliterative prose gets the heat going on a wonderful high forest lone tree. Marvelous you can use its pungent resin for art restoration. Can dream that two part plastic aspires to similar restoration. Not only of a rare Ariel but the poor schlep's itchy soul.
Robert,
Some time, perhaps, perhaps in the distant future,
a space travelor will come upon a fully rigged Ariel on a cosmic rhumb to a far galaxy... :D
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Water logged foam in keel
The foam in the keel of my commander (in the area behind the lead ballast) appears to be water logged. It continues to drain and leach through the keel for what has now been probably over a year since it was last in the water. I need to get this keel dry so I can stop blisters from forming. Has anyone here ever cut in from the top and removed the foam and then replaced it with something else less likely to hold water And preferably less expensive and lighter than solid epoxy?
The previous owner has been fighting the problem for the last 12 years. I want to fix it once and for all. I believe the water is seeping in from the sump area where the glass covering the keel void is cracked. See picture below.
The manual discusses pumping in epoxy through holes drilled in the keel (which I have drilled to try and drain the water) but what happens to the foam when you pump in epoxy? does it melt into goo or does it retain it's current state and if so how do you ever get all the water out of it?
Advise would be appreciated.