Sand in Ballast?

[kjsailingSpring]

I have made lead pieces for my ballast and have the correct weight installed in my ballast on a 35' foot sailboat. I had planned on epoxying the whole thing in but now I'm thinking I could save some money and use sand to fill in the spaces between the lead ballast pieces and then epoxy and glass in the whole thing in once the sand filled up the ballast. Bad idea? Just use cement? or Don't be a cheap sob and use all epoxy to fill in the cracks and then glass over?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. A picture of the ballast is shown.

Karen

[Gene T]

Your picture doesn't show Karen. But I think sand is a really bad idea. It could get wet and if you hit the keel a hole could allow all your ballast to fall through leaving you vulnerable. Pot it and use a vacuum pump if possible to get rid of air pockets.

gene