Well, i don't think I will be looking too closely at any more of these
hulls. The negatives sound like they outweigh the positives for me.
Anyways, i appreciate the knowledge.

-Iain


Rick Cortese wrote:
Iain wrote:

What is the deal with Ferro-Cement? What positives and negatives are
there to it? I keep seeing ferrocement hulls for sale, but don't know
whether to give them a serious consideration. Is it seaworthy? Is the
only factor strength to weight, meaning are they just too heavy? Any
thoughts?

-iain


Anecdotal vs. the scientific fact you probably want= just ignore me.

One of the guys I worked with, Art Hall, was building a cement boat. I
commented that I had spent many years crabbing off a WWII cement boat in
Monterey Bay as it decomposed. He told me about how they were better
engineered and stronger then wood or plastic. Stuff like "The longer you
have them in the water, the stronger they become." I asked him if
anybody he knew had finished theirs yet and he told me about 3 friends
that had. The punch line to each of the completed boats was ~"His sunk
off the Catalina" or ~"He sunk off of Puerto Vallarta." Anyway, of the
three guys he knew, all had sunk. Last I heard from Art, after ~10 years
of work he had finally turned his hull overyou build them upside down
and was getting the rest of the work done. I haven't heard from Art in
20 years so I assume he either got to old to finish it or became the 4th
in the series of cement submarine captains.

I am not saying they are all unsafe. I heard one of the rum runner boats
that anchored outside the territorial waters of SF to supply booze was a
cement boat and it went on to haul lumber for decades. Problem is a 40'
cement boat probably shouldn't be a first project for anyone.

I would even own one though not as a sailing vessel. Specifically if one
was in a marina and I wanted to live aboard, a cement boat would
probably provide the best bang for the buck.

Rick