HOW IT’S MADE

Lead keels

When anyone new to sailing comes aboard our Lyle Hess keeler they nonchalantly spin the winches, peer into the cabin and sit contently in the cockpit. That is until we start sailing and the boat heels a little to the first puff.

At that point they go pale and rigid and look inquiringly at me. I reassure them with “Don’t worry there’s two tons of lead down there trying to hold us upright” as I gesture downwards with a spare finger.

The keel and indeed the lead in it are the foundation of the western idea of what a monohull yacht is. It determines the stability, the motion of the boat in a sea and the ability to go upwind. Despite these fundamentals it is usually out of sight, out of mind and means nothing to the witless first-timer aboard.

MATERIALS

In the good old days high-density ballast was in the form of stones or sand. As performance increased the need to get the highdensity ballast as low as possible on the keel meant that various materials were used. • LEAD: The most common material for a keel as it has high

density, is relatively cheap and in its liquid form easy to cast. • IRON: Many yachts after the war were ballasted with iron as most of the lead had been given to the enemy. It is less dense than lead, plays havoc with the compass and marine growth finds it irresistible. • CONCRETE: A budget solution for the desperate. Its lack of density means you will need 5.5 times the volume of lead to achieve the same weight. • SPENT URANIUM: For the wealthy and the insane. French sailor Eric Taberly used this form of ballast on his Pen Duick VI. At 1.7 times the density of lead it is wonderful apart from the fact that it is slightly radioactive!

CASTING

The following is the rough-as-guts DIY method of lead keel casting. It is ingenious and simple – and hazardous to your health. COLLECTING THE LEAD – lead can be had for the taking if you

have time and patience. The local scrap metal dealer is a good start as are tyre shops and their lead, tyre weights. It will take a long time to accumulate the ton or two you need following this method and your backyard will look like junkyard for a while. MAKING THE MOULD – the male mould is the first to be constructed. It requires careful measurement and construction especially if the lead is to fit into a traditional long keel. The finished product is planked, epoxied and painted just like a miniature version of the boat itself.

The male mould is then placed within a larger female mould dug into the garden near the vege patch. The garden will never be the same again.

The female mold is filled with foundry sand, or concrete or any thing else that will not retain much moisture when set. The male mould is removed leaving a perfect impression of the desired form of the keel. CASTING THE KEEL – this is the fun bit, where you get to leave a permanent scorch mark on the lawn from the wood fire underneath your old enamel bath. This is also the dangerous bit where any loose enamel on the bathtub will explode, as will any of the molten lead that comes into contact with water. You will need luck and beer to survive.

To melt the lead get the bath tub roaring hot with a vacuum cleaner set to blow and hide behind piece of corrugated iron while you skim the impurities off the top. Once the lead is liquid it is time to pour.

Bang it into the mould any way you can and open another beer while you watch it set. Watch also as the mould leaks lead and you remember too late that you need to insert a lifting lug into the mold to give you any chance of getting it out of the ground.

Break up the mould and dig up the garden as you try to jack the whole thing from the ground. Fail miserably and bury the lot before someone notices.

When someone does notice and thinks you may have buried a body in the garden and you have become unhinged, reassure them with “Don’t worry there is two tons of lead down there trying to hold us upright” while gesturing downwards with a spare finger. B