I would worry about the bags splitting later. Is it possible to feed lead shot or similar mixed with a slow set resin and fed into each area? Maybe improvise a chute to get it to where it needs to be. Messy but effective and stable if you can do it.

Chas

For my part, I would have tried lead shot in combination with some sort of funnel to transfer it to the right spots, and then a second and seperate funnel to add resin (e.g. Z-Poxy finishing resin) to fix it in place. Based on experience of pouring lead shot through funnels, I'd say it might be best to use a fairly wide one, as it otherwise easily blocks.

To buy larger quantities of lead shot, I'd suggest looking at shops supplying either divers or hunters, or you can buy scuba diving ballast lead shot from Amazon: **LINK**.

If I were you, I would also do at least the final stages of the ballasting with the boat afloat in the bathtub to make sure that she is ballasted down to sit nicely on the intended waterline, which should hopefully also be the one already painted onto the hull. I found when ballasting my own Moonbeam (a rather easier job, as it was done at the appropriate stage of the build, i.e. before the deck went on) that the precise distribution of the last part of the ballast made quite a difference, with more needed towards the forrard end of the keel space than aft (see **LINK**, about halfway down the page).

Charles,

That is a very good point, and I agree that a chute would most likely be a better option than a funnel or a tube!

However, I am less convinced that it is a good idea to try to add shot and resin already mixed. Not only does it risk getting rather messy, but it will also give only a fairly limited amount of time to reposition the shot if it doesn't end up in just the right place. This would be a tricky enough business given the limited access, and would become even more stressful if the shot were sticky with resin that could start to go off at any moment.

I think it would be much safer to first get all the shot in place just where it should be and only then use a chute to add resin. If the resin is freshly mixed it should seep through the shot as deep as needed. Or, if one worries about the penetrative capacity of the resin, to add the main parts of shot and resin in smaller batches on the workbench, and then finetune in the bathtub with the final kilo or so of shot …