Re: padlers weight

Posted by Mark Camp on Dec 6, 2005

hmmm...never thought of that...but you're right!

It reminds me.

In recent decades, trailerable sailboats with water ballast came into fashion. (They may be out of fashion now, for all I know...Sunday as I prepared to go out to a Christmas gathering, my wife informed me that narrow ties are out, which came as a total shock to me. I distinctly remember her telling me that wide ties were out, it can't have been more than 40 days, or years, ago, at most.)

Sometimes I would read this criticism of water ballast: "of course, the boat must heel enough to lift the water ballast above the waterline before exerts any righting moment..."

My intutition always rebelled against this idea. How do it know whether it is above the waterline or not?

But my intuition was wrong in this case, as it so often is (I thought Betamax would beat VHS; until this year, I always thought the Bengals had a shot at the playoffs; etc.) In fact, lead and sand are still heavy when they are under water, but water is truly weightless.

In Response to: Re: padlers weight by Doug Rhude on Dec 6, 2005

Replies:

• Re: padlers weight by Mike D on Dec 6, 2005
  • Re: padlers weight by Moe on Dec 7, 2005
    • Re: padlers weight by Mac on Dec 7, 2005