balasted

Balasted is a nonstandard spelling that is sometimes encountered as a variant of ballasted, the past tense and past participle of ballast. Ballast refers to heavy material used to provide stability, trim, and draft control for vessels, vehicles, and certain structures. When something is balasted, it has been loaded with ballast.

In maritime and nautical contexts, ballast is used to improve a ship’s stability and ensure proper handling in varying cargo and weather conditions. Water is commonly pumped into ballast tanks to adjust weight and balance, or dry ballast such as sand, gravel, or ore may be used when water ballast is not feasible. Ballast operations involve taking in or discharging material to maintain the desired stability, trim, and draft, and are essential for safe loading, sailing, and unloading. Submarines rely on ballast to dive, level off, and surface by controlling the amount of water in ballast tanks.

The term ballast also appears in civil engineering and railways, where ballast is the bed of crushed stone or other material that supports and drains track. While the noun ballast is standard, the verb form ballasted or balasted may be used when describing the act of placing or adding ballast to a vessel, track, or structure to provide stability.

See also: ballast, ballasted ships, ballast water, ballast tanks, track ballast.