Posted by Alex Forbes on August 01, 2003 at 08:35:29 from 67.75.194.207 user Pitsligo.
In Reply to: Re: another plot-defining nautical mishap posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on August 01, 2003 at 06:03:55:
"My first boat, designed and built just after WW2, had a heavy iron ballast keel and six pigs of inside ballast and would have sunk like a stone."
How big was this boat? Could Swallow have been of a similar ilk? Would she have remained submerged without the pigs, held down by the ballast keel alone? That would certainly answer the question of Swallow's sinking quite neatly.
I've heard of using lead pigs for major trim, putting a few in the bow to keep the hull trimmed level when someone is sitting in the stern sailing. I think the fairly lightly built North Haven dinghies do this as a matter of course; they all ride to their moorings with a dramatic forward rake to their mast, anyhow.
Alex
P.S. What is "S&A At War"??