Conference unifix::sailing

81.0. "on the level" by MOTHER::BERENS () Mon Feb 04 1985 12:39

Did your boat come with a builder installed list (both of mine did)? Is 
all of the stowage for heavy equipment (ground tackle, batteries, etc) 
on one side of the boat? Want to get back on the level?

There is a junkyard in Nashua (on 101A just west of route 3) that sells
used automobile lead wheel weights for $0.22 per pound. Last fall the
guy had 6 tons of them, he claimed. I bought 240 pounds of weights and 
a 8x8x2 inch cake pan. I melt the weights in the pan on my gasoline
Colman camping stove, skimming off the slag with a slotted metal spoon.
When the pan is a little over half full of nice, shiny, molten lead I
turn off the burner and relax. The lead hardens into a nice square, 25
to 30 pound brick. Don't try to pour the lead unless you are melting in
a pot designed for this. Wear heavy boots, gloves, pants, shirt, and a
respirator. Your body will thank you. Anyway, six bricks or so and I'll
be floating level. The bricks will be bolted under the shelf behind the
starboard settee. (Obviously, I don't own a ULDB.) 

Alan