Ways to reduce space that ballest takes

[cs]

So, you don't have much room in the bilge and you can't get enough ballest for limited space. Well have I got the solution for you.

You see if you go with cast iron for ballest it only weighs about 450 lbs a cubic foot.

So that is still too much so we think about lead which weighs in at 708 lbs a cubic foot.

Not enough you say. Let us look at concrete, oh no it only weighs in at 150 lbs a cubic foot. The weight is going the wrong way.

Let's try something with a little more specific gravity. Why not Gold? It withs 1204 lbs a cubic foot. That should free up some room in the bilge. :D

Still not enough? Well than we will go with platinum at 1342 lbs a cubic foot.

See we have now freed up enough room in the hold to carry that extra barrell of rum at somewhere around 50 lbs a cubic foot.

Happy drinking, I mean happy sailing.

Chad

[paladin]

It's easier to use depleted uranium...as heavy as gold and only requires a 1/8th in copper shell for shielding and prevent corrosion....didja ever look at the counterbalances on a jumbo jet...ain't lead...

[George.]

That would be something... a copper-plated, depleted uranium keel! Make a ram out of it too, and jet skis, watch out!

I rather prefer the idea of rum ballast - unlike uranium, it keeps you from dying of thirst in the doldrums :D

[Bob Adams]

Originally posted by paladin:
It's easier to use depleted uranium...as heavy as gold and only requires a 1/8th in copper shell for shielding and prevent corrosion....didja ever look at the counterbalances on a jumbo jet...ain't lead...That was gonna be my suggestion!

[Stiletto]

Are you saying that the counterbalances on a jumbo are depleted uranium? How much do they use?

[paladin]

actually...a couple of hundred pounds.....I had to do a lot of research on the material for my 60 foot B.O.C. boat, but after I jumped through a gazillion hoops to get the approval to purchase, so much info leaked about it that the B.O.C. committee issued a last minute paper ruling (after the entire boat design and hull/decks were built) that said no exotic ballast materials and specifically said no depleted Uranium because it was not available to all contestants and it would give me an unfair advantage.....oh sure...like the French gov't gives a million or two bucks to French competitors gratis while the rest of us poor slobs gotta fish the money outta our own pockets.......I put a lead ballast keel under the boat, sold it...and told them to kiss my rosie red....wine bottle.....

[cs]

The reason I didn't include urinium in my initial post was cause the little bitty book of everything didn't have the specific gravity for it. I guess it's classsified. smile.gif

Chad

[Hwyl]

Didn't Eric Tabarly have uranium in one of his boats.I think it was a Whitbread boad, maybe Pen Duick VI late 70's? Banned soon after--no doubt spurred on by Paladin.

There's a book---"The Golden Keel" about smuggling in the Med'after WW2 (if I remember correctly). O.K. read, but only just

[ 10-26-2004, 07:57 AM: Message edited by: Hwyl ]

[Joe ( Cold Spring on Hudson )]

Just use what I do. A very very very small black hole. Only problem is make sure you know where you place it cause I can never seem to find it with my flashlight and things tend to get sucked into it ;) Sure is heavy though :D

BTW I knew I left myself open ;) :D

[ 10-26-2004, 08:45 AM: Message edited by: Joe ( Cold Spring on Hudson ) ]

[paladin]

Joe...you sure left yourself open with that one....but I'll not comment further.... :D :D

[Mrleft8]

I was thinking mercury...

[John Bell]

Other metals and their specific gravities:

Antimonial (hard) Lead: 10.9 (baseline)
Palladium: 12.2
Mercury: 13.5
Tantalum: 16.6
Plutonium: 16.5-17.5 (dep. on crystalline form)
Uranium: 19.05
Gold: 19.3
Tungsten: 19.35
Platinum: 21.4

In terms of mass for the cash, lead is the clear winner. Not to metntion the galvanic nightmares some of these metals might create. But, hey, maybe you could eliminate having to carry around batteries! :D

[ 10-26-2004, 09:20 AM: Message edited by: John Bell ]

[Mrleft8]

But mercury is so pretty! And it's kinda liquidy...And you could make thermometers out of it after you're done with the boat....

[paladin]

German subs used mercury for ballast in order to conserve lead for bullets....done got a bunch before someone got wise to where it was coming from..........

[John Bell]

A little more research found the densest elements are Osmium with a specific gravity of 22.61 and densest of all is Iridium at 22.65. I'm guessing these are frightfully expensive to source...

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Mercury does very surprising and scary things to other metals that it comes in contact with...useful in gold mining but perilous in a submarine!

[Boomkin Joe]

I've read reports that depleted uranium was even more toxic than mercury.
Wouldn't stock any of that crap in my bilge f'I were ya.

[paladin]

Salt water and depleted uranium corrode away in a heart beat...cover with a copper shell...then encase in three or four layers of epoxy/xynole...mercury in German U-boats wuzzint funny either. It was sealed in ceramic lined steel kettles in the bilge.....if the lining broke and the mercury got loose...especially around a little heat it wuz bye-bye y'all...that's what killed a lot of gold miners...they would crush the gold bearing ore...and place it in mercury pots to dissolve the gold, sift out the stone particles, the distill off the mercury.....and breath mercury vapor....so that had to spend their gold fast before they croaked...

[huisjen]

What's the specific gravity of Boese-Einstein Condensate?

Dan