[Alberg30] Ballast

[FINNUS505 at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/1/01 10:16:56 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
gord at transatmarine.com writes:

<< Hello Gang,
 
 As some of you may recall, I have moaned in the past about being a little 
dissapointed at my A30's ability to carry sail in a blow.  I am in the 
process of crunching numbers to determine the benefit of adding lead ballast 
beneath my liner pan under the cabin sole.  Anybody else gone down this road?
 
 Gord
 KC426 Surprise >>

Hi Gord,

Hmmmmmmmmm,
You're touching on a fairly complicated subject here, one that I've thought 
of alot, and though in my amateur language I may not express myself as 
clearly as I'd like, if you are interested in this subject, as obviously you 
are, I'm sure you would not mind 'one more take' on it. 
In general, old fashioned, CCA, narrow, 'slack bilged', heavy, full keel 
designs, like our A 30's, have to heel over to get  the reserve bouyancy of 
the topsides into the water so that the heeling forces of the rig will be 
countered by the stabilizing forces of the ballast, and so any further force 
in the rig will push the boat forward, instead of further heeling the boat 
over. 
 Once this degree of heeling is reached, the appropriate amount of sail will 
deliver all the power one could need to reach hull speed in the particular 
conditions. If overpowered, reefing will bring the boat back up to top 
achievable speed in the given wind conditions.  Adding ballast would cerainly 
make her stiffer, so in a given wind strength, less reefing would be 
necessary, but  would not necessarily result in greater speed, though it 
would result in greater forces on the rig and hull. It would certainly put 
the boat deeper in the water, increasing wetted surface, and hurting 
performance in lighter air.   
That's my take on it, anyway............           :)   I love thinking about 
this stuff!!!!!!!!   I'd be very interested to learn what 'number crunching' 
you do in analyzing the situation.
Lee
 +--------------------------------------------------------+
 | Get a FREE knotmeter at http://www.alberg30.org/store/ |
 +--------------------------------------------------------+
_______________________________________________
Public-list mailing list -- Public-list at alberg30.org
http://www.alberg30.org/mailman/listinfo/public-list
To unsubscribe: email to Public-list-request at alberg30.org
Include command "unsubscribe <password>" in subject or body.
Use command "help" for more options.

 983545555.0