62 Liters capacity per keel

Planning: Thinking, making up your mind: a small diesel inboard. Check prices. Change mind: outboard should do. Think again. Ok, install a stern tube just in case. Think again: we will need electricity. Small generator then. I have an alternator that can give 12 and 220 volt, and you can weld with it. But it needs a small diesel to drive it. So small diesel, but gearboxes are expensive! And propellors even more so ... Nice variable pitch propellor at Euro 6 000!!! Maybe have one made? Would cost even more. Designs for modelling ones ... Maybe find a good engineering shop?

Oops!!!

Planning: lead ballast. London prices are just this side of gold! But scrap lead should be cheaper. No, rather use steel punchings. Ok, find a supplier for steel. No, they do not have any, might get in the weeks to come. Lead? Yes, how many tons? Oh, er, well, maybe 400 kg, how much? Good price. Check bank balance. Ok, order 800 of the needed 900kg, steel punchings or ball bearings can do the rest.

A lot of lead can go in there!

How to transport it? Cruiser? Can do, brakes need adjustment, tyres pumped, off we go. But getting it in is not as easy! The forklift drops on the tailgate, bending the hinge, so the rest of the load goes in by hand: Some slabs of sheet lead, old pipes, even a few diving weights, then sinkers, tyre weights, small scrap. How to fit it in the keels? Just dump it? Melt it in? (Preferably not, I want to be able to get it out again, to make trailing easier. But how to get the eventual water out? Bilge pump?

Would have been easier to buy one of the many boats lying on moorings from year to year, but not nearly as much fun!!

So far so good.