David Tyler wrote:

In Tystie, all of my ballast is internal. It's mainly 25kg lead ingots, with lead shot poured into the gaps, and with cheap polyester resin poured over the lead to keep it in place. I had to buy the ingots by the ton, but the shot came in 25 kg sacks from a place in Hull (I think it was http://www.hullcartridge.co.uk/). In Ivory Gull, I used dry sand to fill the gaps between iron ingots and to absorb the exothermic heat from the resin.

I think your main problem is to get the bilge clean enough for good adhesion, but if you can achieve this, then any mixture of lead scrap, lead shot, steel shot, steel punchings, etc, will do.  I suggest you try a scrap metal dealer for suitably shaped pieces of lead scrap as your best choice.

I think it may have been Gamebore, the name you gave me and who supplied the lead shot for Malliemac. Their tel.no. is 01482 223707.

I am going to remove my ancient MD2B and replace it with a modern engine.  The difference in weight is about 100 kilos.  Under the enging bay is a bilge-water sump, where there is plenty of space for additional ballast, though room will still be left for a reasonable sump.

Because the junk rig has put the boat's head down a (very) little, I am going to put into the sump approx 150 kilos of lead.

But how best is this done?  Are there any problems in prospect?  Will the 150 kilos fall through the bottom of the boat?  Should I use lead shot, or lead bars, or does it matter?  And how best to secure the new ballast in place?

Advice would be very welcome .....