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S17 Water ballast

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Clem Freeman:
Did any of you ever build a Storm 17 with water ballast? I'm thinking of adding it as otherwise I'll have to sail on Jib and Mizzen only when my wife comes out as she is a tad nervous.

steve jones:
Hi, Clem,

 Good to meet you at SEAFAIR, nice job you have made of your boat.

 As you know I had fitted a water ballast system on my S17, which gave about 100 kg of ballast. I mostly sail single handed so I thought it prudent to do so.

  There are athwartship baffles either side of the cb case and fore/aft ones ahead and aft of the cb case.

  The overall deck resulting from the mod. is to leave a  self draning well about 2ft ahead of the mizzen, I fitted a grating to flush the ballast deck back to the mizzen, and a pump discharging into the ob well.

  The forward end reached the forward bulkhead, which meant there was a potential for the forepeak to fill with water and be difficult to pump out.

  My temporay solution was to level off with expanded foam, and fit a weather ledge.
Had I kept the boat I would have sealed off the fore peak from inside the boat and fitted a fore deck hatch.

  I fitted an  air vent close to the foreward bulkhead as well.

  Water ballast works for me, but certainly slows the boat. Gareth Rowlands in his S17 could easily outpace me, in both my S17 and BR17.

  Most of the modifications I have made have added weight, but I cruise rather than race.

  I off to Falmouth next week , hope to meet up again .

All the best .

Steve Jones BR17  Nona Me

Clem Freeman:
Steve,

Thanks for the information. I tend to do mostly cruising and probably solo so not concerned about outright speed. How did you fill the tank, was it pumped in or did you use the same arrangement as on the Bayraider? I've been toying with the idea of fitting lead ballast but do like the idea of being able to dump the ballast if required.

Clem

steve jones:
Hi  Clem,
   On mine it was just a bung through the hull accessed through a flush deck hatch.

   The BR17 has a forward facing large self bailer to fill and an aft facing self bailer to empty. the deck hatch is much larger to access both bailers.

    I have a couple of bungs draining into the sumps either side of the ob well, but use a hand pump into the ob well for faster emptying.

  I used a hand pump on the S17 and opened the bung prior to recovery on the trolly.

  All the best,

 Steve

Simon Holden:
Clem

I'm sure that you have seen these photos of an S17 being built with a ballast box - but just in case you haven't there are 2 on the original CD which came with the kit in the 'photos for panel kit' folder. I've tried uploading them but I think they're too big.
I'm interested to hear that you find the S17 a bit unstable as I am coming to the end of my build (painting topsides with 2-pack - argh!).
I guess the water would have to be equally distributed fore and aft of the CLR. I'd love to know how you get on if you follow this route as I may be following suite
Cheers

Simon

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