HC33 Fuel Tanks

[mitchk]

I have seen the drawings on this website showing the tank arrangement for the lead keel option. Does anyone have the tankage for the other? Mine appears to only have 1 fuel tank located under the salon table running aft to just before the bilge sump? It aslo only has 1 fuel supply hose going to the fiters. Is this the only way to determine if it is a lead keel or not? and if not lead what is the keel ballast made of?

[warmrain]

Couple of ways to tell if you have iron or lead ballast (the only two options)...

Use a magnet or a compass when the boat is hauled out... Measure the water capacity (80-90 is iron ballast).

Measure the fuel capacity (78-80 is iron ballast).

It is very unlikey that you have anything but iron. Lead was a special order option and I question whether any were actually built. I investigated this option and as convinced by Craig Beckwith that the boat would be "too stiff". After having stopped counting the miles under the keel over ten years ago at 5,000 and after having lived aboard for 20 years, I'm thinking he may have been correct. Though the additional tankage would have been nice...

Why would lead make the boat more stiff than the equivelent weight in iron...? Because the center of mass is lower in the hull and the boat was designed around iron.

My thought is that you could use a little less... the tankage is actually part of the ballast...