Posted by The Ancient Mariner on September 17, 1998 at 22:59:11:
In Reply to: The Wild Cat's ballast posted by Robert Dilley on September 14, 1998 at 17:51:44:
I would expect Wildcat to have carried both water ballast which, as the previous contributors have suspected, would be of negligable effect to the stability of the vessel. She was,after all, a "long keel" boat with a substantial keel plus, in all probability, inboard lead or cast iron ballast in the form of pigs. These have the advantage of being moved around to improve the trim of the boat (as with Nancy B earlier this year). The water ballast was, in all likelihood, carried in purpose-built cast iron tanks.
Would anyone care to fund building a replica "Wildcat"??? - I'll volunteer to sail her!! - and I'd doubt that we'd need a press-gang to crew her!!