4-5.

The centerboard is ready for lead. Hole cut out, nails in place to help hold the lead in, and plywood tacked on the back to keep the lead in the hole and not on the floor.

The engineering supply store didn't have the lead ingots, so we acquired a heavy bucket of junk from the local tire store (free, no gold needed to trade) - fittings that are attached to your car wheels to align them properly, and happen to be made out of lead (some of them).

We had to sort through the bucket and rip off steel pieces to just have lead in our paint pot. We measured out about 10 lbs of lead and then started melting it.

Turned out that some of it must not have been lead because it didn't all melt at the same temperature. So we picked out the stray solid pieces before starting to pour.

Poured the molten lead carefully into the centerboard. It was awesome! It was bubbling and splattering like Yellowstone mudpots. It was actually a little bit too hot - past molten - since it was boiling and the wood underneath started to smoke and burn a little. But nothing actually caught fire.

It cooled really fast and we took off the plywood under-board - which was what was smoking so much. This was a stinky operation even with the gas masks on. But it was the coolest thing we've done yet, and maybe will be the coolest thing of the whole process.

Now the centerboard feels really heavy, although it's only added 10 lbs, but it's all concentrated in one area at the bottom.