Typical use of water ballast

[Alison Kidd]

As a peripheral observer, I'm interested to know how the BR, SR and now BC owners typically use their water ballast - do you sail more often with it full or empty? What do the conditions need to be like to make the switch and how often do you do it mid-sail?

I'm just interested in your experiences.

Alison

Storm 17 - Boadicea

[Edwin Davies 2]

So am I, interested that is.



BR17 on order.

[Edwin Davies 2]

Still trying to change my profile name to lower case?

[Guy Briselden]

I use the water ballast in my BayRaider (No.3) nearly all the time. This is partly due to often having small children out and wanting the stability, partly down to changeable North Cornwall weather and preferring to ready for more wind than we started with, and partly down to being a bit of a wimp! I suppose I also think that the ballast avoids the need to reef on a marginal day. Actually we went for an early morning sail today and I thought of going without the ballast but was pleased to have it when the wind had picked up an hour or so later. I know I am missing out on some marginal performance but am happy with the overall balance of speed/stability.

[Julian Swindell]

I have only pumped out my ballast once, on the BayCruiser. You have to pump it as it is in two tanks and self drainers wouldn't really do it. I didn't notice much difference in performance. When the wind got up I started leaning more, and as I was single handed I flooded the tanks again. I think on the whole I will probably just keep them full unless I have some mad crew on board. It all just feels wonderfully solid with it in and still flies along

[Alison Kidd]

Thanks for the feedback!- it's very interesting.

Claus - were your comments about your SeaRaider or BayRaider? Or do you find you use the ballast much the same in both boats?

What's it like capsizing without the ballast in? Or has that not happened yet?

[Jeff Curtis]

Hi Alison

I've an early wooden BayRaider which is considerably lighter than the GRP versions. I use the water ballast pretty much all the time when single handed. Like this she is extremely stable and doesn't slam. Generally, I only empty the tank when with crew or in flat water. I have fitted an additional self-bailer (Anderson 'Large') in the ballast tank next to to the filling 'bailer' that I can reach from the helm; this empties the tank in less than 15 minutes at 5 knots plus.

Last Friday I sailed from Ashlett Creek in Southampton Water to Hardway Sailing Club in Portsmouth Harbour. The wind was on the beam or behind me but force 5 to 6. I wouldn't have attempted it with the wind on the nose. I filled the ballast tank and left the main furled and whizzed round in 2 1/2 hours at 6 to 7 knots under jib and mizzen, hitting 10.1 knots surfing off a wave. It sounds hairy but the boat was fine although I wouldn't have liked to be going the other way. On Saturday my wife Celia joined me for a sail around Portsmouth Harbour, still with the tank full but not in deference to Celia, she is a better and far more adventurous sailor than me. We played around with the asymmetric but I've found that this doesn't give much more speed unless the ballast tank is empty, when she really flies. On Sunday I sailed back to Ashlett by myself again. I had to motor against a fierce spring tide flooding through the harbour entrance and was grateful for the water ballast in the boisterous conditions. Once off Hillhead and with lighter but still fresh winds I emptied the ballast tank as an experiment. She immediately started to slam and shudder in the short solent chop and I struggled to stay perched on the side decks as she heeled to the wind. But there was never any feeling that she would capsize, it was just a struggle to stop her from rounding up. Experiment over I re-filled the ballast tank and calm returned. I did empty the tank again under motor before entering Ashlett Creek as it speeds up retrieving the boat.

I hope that gives you some idea of water ballast in use. I think it is brilliant.

Best wishes
Jeff

[Alison Kidd]

Claus - thanks for the comments.

Quickly filling the water ballast as an alternative to reefing in a hurry is a huge asset. I hadn't realised it would work so well for that. Also, the idea of being able to stabilise the boat in hairy conditions whilst getting a reef in sounds good too. I've never liked reefing 'at sea' in a dinghy - it has to be done but it always feels nasty standing up and bouncing around whilst trying to do fiddly things with cold, wet fingers.

Even with the Storm 17 I really like the fact that we can simply drop the mainsail and carry on sailing upwind (if the wind suddenly strengthens) without bothering with reefing even. However, we are not racing so don't mind the drop off in speed when under jib and mizzen alone.

I had always seen the main benefit of the water ballast as being the chance to have a boat light enough to trail and launch but heavy enough to be stable in a sea. It's really good to know that it works so well dynamically as well.

[Michael Rogers]

This is going to seem primitive to you sophisticates, but here goes. Any Storm Petrel sailors out there? You too can have water ballast! I don't need to tell you that SPs are skittish and tend to heel a bit too readily, especially single-handed and in a breeze (Alison's remarks about reefing in a dinghy are highly relevant to SP sailors). I now use camping water carriers, the type which are flat when empty (can be rolled up into a small space) and carry 10 litres each, which is a manageable weight. Two, four or six of these (= 40 - 120 metric pounds of ballast) depending on conditions (usually four), stowed either side of the dagger board case, are low in the boat, aren't in the way and have a wonderful effect on stability and handling.

Not nearly as flexible as in Swallowboats with proper tanks, but very useful. It may be obvious to others, but I learned the hard way that you can't just dunk a flexible water container under the surface and expect it to fill, because it won't (if you don't see what I mean, try it!). The solution is a cheap gardening watering can, with about a foot of garden hose attached to the spout, in the boot of the car. I fill up the water ballast containers, rig and launch the boat, load the water, and off I go. Reverse the procedures at recovery after the sail.

Like I said, a bit primitive, but workable and very helpful.

Michael Rogers

[Tony]

Hi, Michael.

If you think your use of water ballast is primitive you should hear the language I use when heaving great lumps of lead on and off my CBL!
With 90kg to bolt down for sailing - or to distribute in the foot wells of the car when towing - I would give my eye teeth for the option of water ballast tanks.

 Mind you, the lead does the job very well. The boat carries its way better when motoring into a bit of a sea and allows my crew to sit where ever they want for the best view when sailing in winds up to about F3. (Higher than that I get nervous when she dives around looking for the sun cream.)

It has three major disadvantages. Firstly, that it is not variable on the fly. I reckon I lose at least a knot in light winds - and for some reason she doesnt point as high, either (Beats me!),adding hours to even a relatively short passage.
The second big problem is that the extra weight in the boat makes a huge difference when man-handling it around a car park. On the road you cant always find caravan sized spaces but without the lead its a simple matter to unhitch and wheel her into any car-sized space. Less chance of being blocked in, too. This means you can have lunch where ever you like rather than limiting yourself to motorway service stations!
Lastly, even if (as I do) you put the  ballast in the car, you still have and extra fat blokes worth of weight to haul around, using extra petrol every time you go up a hill or move off from the lights.

If a newly designed small boat hasnt got variable water ballast these days (assuming it needed ballast in the first place) you could justifiably rule it out for serious trailer sailing on fuel costs alone. I am, in fact, seriously considering giving up a bit of precious locker space on the CBL to do something along the lines you suggest, perhaps using a tank filled and emptied with a bilge pump, although I dont think Ill go so far as to pump it from one side to the other when tacking!

Cheers!

[Julian Swindell]

I like the idea of bottled water ballast. Just like the old sandbaggers, who moved bags of sand from side to side and for the final run home dumped it all over the side and crossed their fingers, hoping there would be no wind shift.

Would it be possible to retro-fit a ballast tank in a Storm or Petrel hull? How much volume is there over the keel that could be used?

[Michael Rogers]

Julian's query about possible water ballast tanks in a Storm Petrel - I had thought about this, but now I've been stimulated to do the measurements and my calculator has done the sums. The result surprised me.

The SP hull is rather shallow, and over the 6 feet length of the cockpit a tank could not be more than 5 cm deep in the midline, and a shallow V-shape 45 cm wide (those would be the internal dimensions). The volume of the space would be just over 20 litres the extra weight around 40 metric pounds, and from that would need to be subtracted the size of the base of the dagger board case assembly, which occupies part of the space. The resulting water ballast would therefore be rather less than that in two of my floppy carriers. Not a lot, and not really really worth the considerable build hassle. There are also interesting considerations around trim and lead (to rhyme with steed - the distance between the centres of lateral resistance and of effort; not the Pb variety). On balance (excuse the pun), I'll stick to being a water sandbagger!

Ahoy!