Now that I’m home more, I’ve been working on the boat again. I have almost finished filling the hull and fairing it. I have decided to keep the almost clear appearance of the epoxy on the wood. I will finish it with some sort of UV blocking clear bottom coat. Right now, I’m trying to accumulate enough lead to cast the ballast. I need about 650 pounds. So far, I’ve managed to acquire some from a local tire shop but unfortunately, it is very messy and the waste is about 50%. There are so many tire weights that are not lead, that it takes forever to process. I have gotten about 85 pounds from two 5-gallon buckets. I was really hoping to not have to buy too much but it seems to be really hard to come by these days. I think the fear of lead has made it much harder to buy. I contacted a couple of recycling places in town and only one would sell me some, “If they had any.” The other very well-known recycling place in Casper informed me, in a very rude tone of voice, that they don’t sell lead. I guess they don’t really recycle. They must just accumulate raw material for China. I definitely won’t be taking anything to them again. In my opinion, the purpose of a recycling company is to collect material that one person has and doesn’t need and sell it to someone who does need it. I guess I was wrong.

I made three models of the pieces of ballast I’m going to cast. On one of the pictures you can see it in place, where they will go when cast. I wanted to break it up so they would be easier to handle. I’m going to mount them and encapsulate them before turning the boat over. Unlike some builds, I don’t want the ballast exposed. I think it will make it cleaner and look better.