View Single Post
  #2   Report Post  
posted to rec.boats.building
 
Posts: n/a
Default aluminum yachts/catamarans

I like cats an I like aluminum. I do think aluminum is difficult to
form that results in a fair shape, meaning it will probably require
extensive fairing compound after it's built. the noise is a factor,
the condensation is another, but the one that bugs me the most is the
corrosion/electrolitic galvanic, put your electrode in the electrolyte
issue. Basically, if you stick an aluminum boat in salt water, you've
created a battery, and if you are hanging out at a dock perhaps next to
a steel fishing boat, it could be pretty bad.

having said all that, Pen Duik IV (think that's the one, there were a
number of Pen Duicks) was an aluminum trimaran, faster than anything
else around in it's day, set a bunch of records. A Frog named Eric
Tabarly sailed her to many trophies, and records in (I think) the
seventies. Try finding it on google, it's a hell of a boat. It did
suffer from cracking at the AKA to AMA joints, but still, awesome!

Luc