Water ballast on H19

[HernandoBeacher]

Were all H19's water ballast. I recall sailing an early 80's version and don't remember dealing with a water ballast.

 

[MrUnix]

You are correct.. the H19 of the early 80's (1982??) had a swing keel. Neighbor had one that I used to sail on all the time.

Cheers,
Brad

 

[mark01234]

A common type of ballast for small boats that avoids many of the problems of high density ballast is water ballast. While it seems counter-intuitive that placing water in the hull (which is, after all, the same density as the water outside the hull) would add any stability, in fact, adding water ballast below the vertical center of gravity increases stability. A common fallacy is that the water ballast must be lifted above the waterline to affect stability. This is not true. Any material having greater bulk density than air will have an effect on the centre of gravity.