[duchess of montrose]

i dont think iron itself is that bad in terms of ballast, that being said lead is better but there are some good boats with cast iron ballast. cement and iron however is much less dense which is an issue in terms of righting ability and also as people have said they were generally poorly constructed. Not necessarily this boat but generally concrete doesnt mix well with a ferrous material like iron.

in terms of qualities of ballast id say lead - iron then much less desirable is iron and cement and then theres water ballast that is next to useless. On that design and size of boat though your stability is probably not as much an issue as you are probably not planning on taking it out in really horrible weather.

but check to see how the encapsulation was made. My boat has iron ballast thats encapsulated without any concrete and I know even with just iron theres issues of delamination, rust and cracking but I have no voids in my keel, you can do a preliminary inspection of the keel by tapping for voids but have a surveyor check it out because any ferrous keel is subject to voids if it was either improperly constructed or was damaged.