bristol ballast?

[merc2dogs]

Been looking at a couple of Bristols, realy like them and ready to close the deal on one.

Problem is that while researching I've run into a quite a few stories about the ballast not always being lead. What's the best way to tell?
I've read of looking in the hatch above the keel, but what am I looking for?

I've been looking at several boats over the last few months, and personally haven't noticed any difference when looking in the hatch (looked at various 22, 24, and 26 foot bristol boats) were there certain years where the ballast was more likely to be something other than lead?

Thanks
Ken.

[seabreeze_97]

The ballast on the early boats in particular, is encapsulated in resin, so you're not gonna see it. Some info can be gleaned from this site:
Bristol Owners' Association Home Page

[sailingfool]

If you can't tell whether the ballast is iron, then why worry about the question? With an iron keel, if there are any weak spots: cracks, open seams, gougues, or other forms of water access to the keel, you will see telltale rust stains. No rust stains, find something else to worry about...

[posmentier]

For the Bristol 24's (I don't know about the others), the concrete-ballasted boats have had serious problems with water retention and freezing. The concrete ballast comes to within a few inches of the floorboards, but the lead ballast comes up to roughly 9" below. That's how you can tell the difference.

- eric

[merc2dogs]

Thanks Eric! that's the info I was looking for, unfortunately the owner of the Bristol I was looking at changed his mind an pulled the boat from the market.

I'd heard about the problems with the concrete ballast and while I'm willing to tackle a lot of problems, didn't want to mess with ballast.

Thanks again,
Ken

[FloridaWriter]

I don't know of any Bristols built with concrete in the bilge.

[camaraderie]

check here:
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/bristo...html#post73363

[FloridaWriter]

As I said, I don't know of any Bristols that the yard added concrete in the bilge. They encapsulated lead in polyester resin. B24's had both encapsulated lead or encapsulated iron depending on the size of the bilge sump. The B24 has a ballast to displacement ratio of 50% which could not be accomplished in so shallow draft of that boat with concrete. Concrete in the bilge was typical of Choy Lee's and some other asian boats; not Bristols.

[merc2dogs]

That's why I posted the question, read some posts on 'non-lead' ballast, including one where the owner stated the boat was a total loss because of water getting into it. But, I'd only read a couple of references to it, and the owners didn't own the boats from new, and couldn't verify that they were originally equipped that way.
I've seen a few boats where a PO had added a few hundred pounds of ballast, apparently to stiffen her up. My Ariel has a couple extra 'ham-can' blocks of lead in addition to the factory blocks included with the outboard models.

Ken.