Thread: External Ballast

Welcome to the forum Dave.

There's always some good and bad about every decision made in yacht design. It's usually advantageous to have external ballast, as it places the CG lower. On the other hand you have to bolt a casting to the boat, which is a leak potential. Internal ballast eliminates the leak potential, but also raises the CG and crowds the bilge too.

Other thing to consider are: if the external ballast moves the CG significantly lower, you could run into rigging issues, from the increased righting moment. The lowered ballast could also require substantial reinforcement in the areas it's placed or to a centerboard case and it's supports, if it's where the weight is placed.

So, to directly answer your question - yep, you can hang the ballast on the outside or place it in a board or a stub keel or a combination thereof.

Where do you want the ballast to live on your Hartley? I'm a big fan of stub keels on centerboard boats, as it lowers the impact the board case has on the interior, lowers the CG, but usually doesn't need additional localized reinforcements to carry it.

Simply put, you have some number of options, so maybe a more descriptive vision of your plan?