[Public-List] Garboard drains

Gordon Laco mainstay at csolve.net
Mon Apr 22 06:29:57 PDT 2019 

Whitby Boatworks switched to iron before the first boat was built.  One or two were built with lead at the insistence of particular owners, but after HERSELF was launched and proved devastatingly faster on the race course (stiffer, less pitching moment, etc) Whitby withdrew the option.  No production line built Alberg 30 ever had lead ballast.

The early A30’s were too lightly ballasted with their iron due to drafting board estimates of the volume of iron needed to make up for the lower density of that metal compared to lead.  Those few early boats had to have loose ballast added to stiffen them up to where they matched the later boats… I believe this happened in the first year of production.

I reckon my knowledge is anecdotal, in that I don’t have documents… but I knew Kurt Hansen and the people at Whitby well… my late Uncle Conny Costas built the sticks and supplied the rigging from Tom Taylor Co, where I worked at the beginning of my career.

Gordon Laco
#426 Surprise




> On Apr 22, 2019, at 9:20 AM, Mike Lehman via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
> 
> We agree...it would interesting to know when Whitby switched to iron. Also,
> I remember that the early A30s were under ballast and Whitby had to
> instruct owners to add more weight to the keel to keep them class legal.
> 
> On Mon, Apr 22, 2019, 9:05 AM Gordon Laco via Public-List <
> public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
> 
>> Hello Mike -
>> 
>> Nearly 100% of yachts built in the USA and Canada up to the present have
>> lead ballast…  Iron went out of favour before the big switch to fibreglass
>> and fin keels except in a very few cases; the Alberg 30 and Shark classes
>> being two (and perhaps only…)   Iron as ballast has nothing going for it
>> but cost savings.
>> 
>> Carl Alberg designed our boats to have lead ballast… but Kurt Hansen of
>> Whitby Boatworks switched to iron reckoning in a one design class the loss
>> of performance would not matter if all in the class suffered it equally.
>> Similarly, we were supposed to have bendy fractional rigs like the
>> Folkboats… but Hansen reckoned the oversized ’totem pole’ masts we have
>> would be cheaper to build… and I reckon he made correct decisions on both
>> counts.   The Whitby Boatworks had a long and profitable run.
>> 
>> 
>> Gordon Laco
>> #426 Surprise.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Apr 22, 2019, at 8:57 AM, Mike Lehman via Public-List <
>> public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Well hull #123 (built 1965) is at the boat yard down the street from me
>> and
>>> we had to drill a garboard drain in the boat because, even on land, it
>> was
>>> filling up with water. Using a magnet we could NOT find where the ballast
>>> ended, So we went to another A30 in the yard #655 (Built in 1981) to use
>>> the magnet because it has iron ballast and measured up from the bottom of
>>> the keel to the magnet line, then transferred the measurement to #123 and
>>> drilled a hole...which was right at the top of the ballast. #123 has lead
>>> ballast....so it was more than a few boats with lead. I understand that,
>> in
>>> the US lead, was banned in 1978 especially in paints and gasoline and
>>> perhaps in ballast. I don't when Whitby stopped using lead and I am sorry
>>> that I cannot remember what the measurement was, but later today I will
>>> walk down to the marina and measure where the hole is.
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Apr 21, 2019 at 7:30 PM Gordon Laco via Public-List <
>>> public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Hello Mike -
>>>> 
>>>> I think only a very few A30’s had lead ballast, perhaps only one or two.
>>>> Whitby switched to iron to make the boats less expensive.   Lead was
>> not an
>>>> issue because those keels would have been cast at a foundry far from the
>>>> plant.  They would have received the ballast pigs precast and just
>> lowered
>>>> them into the hulls just as lead ones were.
>>>> 
>>>> Whitby put lead ballast into their Whitby 42’s, Alberg 37’s, Whitby 45’s
>>>> quite safely and happily right up to the end of production in the ’80’s.
>>>> And of course production of those boats came after they’d been building
>>>> Alberg 30’s and Folkboats with iron keels for quite some time.
>>>> 
>>>> Come to think of it, the only Alberg 30 with a lead keel I think I ever
>>>> heard of was a black hulled one named HERSELF.   I think that may have
>> been
>>>> the only one.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Gord Laco
>>>> #426 Surprise
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On Apr 21, 2019, at 5:51 PM, Mike Lehman via Public-List <
>>>> public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> The older boats had lead ballast. I believe it was the late 60s or
>> early
>>>>> 70s when Whitby switched the iron, due to health concerns for employees
>>>>> with lead poisoning.  If you have a boat with iron ballast, using a
>>>> magnet
>>>>> works to find the top of the ballast.
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 5:47 PM Winslow Ayer via Public-List <
>>>>> public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> What about using a rare earth magnet to find the iron?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Winslow
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On Apr 21, 2019, at 12:17 PM, Gordon Laco via Public-List <
>>>>>> public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> I’ve never remembered to photograph it either… although I’ve often
>>>>>> thought of doing that too late…
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Gordon Laco
>>>>>>> www.gordonlaco.com
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> On Apr 21, 2019, at 12:13 PM, George Dinwiddie via Public-List <
>>>>>> public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> On 4/21/19 10:05 AM, Gordon Laco via Public-List wrote:
>>>>>>>>> The next day I came back to do something else on the boat and
>>>>>>>>> discovered that the iron ballast’s outline was revealing itself in
>>>>>>>>> the morning chill by condensation caused by warm moist spring air
>> on
>>>>>>>>> the area of the bottom backed by the still-cold iron.
>>>>>>>> I've seen that, but not since it occurred to me to take a photo of
>> it
>>>>>> for the website.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> - George
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> 
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>> When I remember bygone days                         George Dinwiddie
>>>>>>>> I think how evening follows morn;
>> gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
>>>>>>>> So many I loved were not yet dead,
>> http://www.Alberg30.org
>>>>>>>> So many I love were not yet born.                          also see:
>>>>>>>>           'The Middle' by Ogden Nash     http://idiacomputing.com
>>>>>>>> 
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
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>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Mike Lehman
>>> ~~~_/)_/)~~_/)~~~
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