Pouring a lead keel for our sailboat

Our next big project on the sailboat was pouring a lead keel.

The reason for deciding to do that was that we felt that there was too much maintenance and risks with keeping the “swing” keel, this is the short version. In our videos we talk more about why we decided to cast a lead keel ourselves.

We did all of the steps in the keel casting process ourselves; from design to finished keel. Of course with some consulting and assistance, but we did a big, big majority of the work just the two of us.

In this post we gather all videos related to pouring a lead keel for our sailboat.

2.11 We have reached a keel decision – In this video we talk about why we decided to go for casting the keel ourselves

2.12 Keel design & making the plug – We present the design for the keel and start the process of making the plug

2.13 Preparations for casting a 3.7 tonnes lead keel – We continue with making the plug, and also talk more about how we will attach the keel to the original upper part. We also start preparing the casting site.

2.14 Pouring a lead keel for our sailboat – It is casting day! We were quite nervous when we started the fire and waited for the lead to melt…

2.15 Uncovering the 3.7 tonnes lead keel we casted ourselves – We open up the mold to see if we had a successful casting or not