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Removed Lead Ingots Today

tfrere

tfrere

Thomas McNulty
I spent about 1/2 of the day today removing the lead ingots from the bow of my M382. I counted 60 but only removed 59. My bow is now 2-1/2 inches higher than it was before I started. I knew my boat was bow heavy because the starboard cockpit seat holds water after a rain or washing.
 
Any hard learned lessons or suggestions for an M382 owner that still has this project on the horizon? What did techniques did you discover worked well for getting the lead out?
 
I started off using an air chisel. It didn't work too well so I went to Home Depot and rented an electric handheld jack hammer. It is about the size of a large hammer drill but doesn't spin. It worked well but it was still a lot of hard work. Make sure your opening is large enough to access the entire area.
 
Thomas
Do you have a windlass and an all chain rode? That weight was put up there to counter the lack of heavy anchor gear.

Jim
 
I do have a windlass. It is a Seatiger 555 which I assume is very heavy. I also have a very beefy bow sprit/anchor roller. I have 2 anchors and 60' of 3/8" chain. I knew my bow was heavy because of the water held on my starboard cockpit seat. Another 382 (2 boats down from me) in the same marina was 4" higher at the bow. Looks about right now.
 
Thanks for giving me some of the lead , I melted it down and made dive weights out of it, came out nice !
 
I also did this. I just used a hammer and chisel. A lot of work but it enabled me to add chain. The chain was cost effective to buy in bulk so i ended up with 400' of it! More than needed.
 
The lead was there to balance the boat fore and aft because the Yanmar 3QM30 weighed 200#'s more than Ted Brewer's design called for (Per telecon with Ted).
 
Where are these lead ingots located, exactly?

I have seen nothing in Stargazer - a 382 - that fits this description.

Stargazer has the 3QM30, and, as I noted in another thread, the top of the rudder stuffing box is maybe 4" below waterline, whereas I have seen other 382 owners claim that the top of their stuffing box is above the waterline.

I'm wondering whether my stern is "low" with respect to design specification because someone removed these counterweights from the pointy-end of the boat...

What's the advantage/disadvantage of having these weights or removing them? And if you are taking them out, what is your reason for doing so?

Cheers!

Chris
 
Chris - The lead ingots are located in a hidden compartment under the V-berth. You can see some photos of the process on my blog at http://www.dptransom.com/2014/12/teach-a-man-to-fish.html/

I have the Perkins 4.108, and my boat floated on her lines before I took out the lead. I plan to replace my nylon anchor rode with chain. I expect that she will continue to float on her lines once I add chain and a new windlass (that's why I removed the ingots).

Ken
 
Well, I'll be damned!

Spot on, Ken!

Sure enough, I dug down in the forepeak under the chain-locker door, and there were a dozen or so hexagonal pits in some sort of resin-like material.

So, some prior owner already did the removal - lucky me!

I bought Stargazer in 2010 with 200' of chain and a 45# CQR anchor up front ... So the previous owner may have removed these counterweights for the same reason you did.

Stargazer has the Yanmar 3QM30 engine, but she seems to "float on her lines" as you put it.

So the chain+anchor must be adequate compensation for the removed lead ingots.

Extra points for Ken (and John) and Mai Tais all around!

Chris
 
The Plath Windlass I ordered is almost ready to ship, so I came to the inevitable chore of getting the lead out. As with most posts on the subject, it was about a five hour job - if the temperature wasn't in the mid-90's it might have been more pleasant. I wanted to post some photos showing the highlights and the tools I found useful. Probably we all use whatever tools are close at hand, but after a couple hours on the project, I visited the local lumber yard for a bigger hammer (2# short handle) and some smaller chisels. The flat bar was a critical tool as I could bash the angled end beneath the ingots and pry 'em out of the resin, sometimes using my foot for more power. As I went deeper, and the playing field had leveled, I found the drill occasionally useful to start between ingots and then used the smaller chisels like a dentist to remove enough between ingots to start 'em moving. I used the bar with the cutout at the end for more leverage on the flat pry bar.

What remains is to get the stalagmites of resin off the inside of the hull - that seems to be where the resin sticks best and when it releases it leaves bare fibers that I'll probably touch up with some West System epoxy. By then I will have
filled that blue bucket with resin three times.

I expect the flat wood chisel will work best to chip away at those then I'll have to finish smoothing-up with abrasives.

Glad to have the big effort behind me.Extraction in Progress ld.JPG Ingots Out ld.JPG Now What ld.JPG
 
Tom
Just out of curiosity did you count how many there was and weigh them to see what the total weight actually was?
 
I weighed one of them on a small scale I own. They weighed approximately 5 lbs each and there were 60 of them.
 
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