The lead ballast is pushed under the keel

14.5 tons of lead

The 14.5 ton heavy lead keel is towed under the hull on a special low-loader.

It is the original lead ballast from the year 1928, which has been completely overhauled. For this, all the bolts were checked and defect parts were replaced with new ones.

Thick bolts

Here in the front part of the lead keel you can clearly make out that some of the bronze bolts are protruding below!

Back in 1928, each keel bolt was inserted into the keel from underneath and only sealed afterwards, so we had to insert all the bolts again in this same way.

Our boat builder, whose head of hair can be seen here to the right of the bolt, serves as a comparison to the sheer size of the bolts.