Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:03:09 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:



Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:04:17 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

Have you seen these?

www.rocksaltboats.com

I haven't seen one as I don't think they've actually built one yet - I
think they are in process of building one, but I am aware of this
model.

From it's description, it's going to be quite the boat.

That's a very nice looking craft from what I can tell, but I wonder
what "Marine grade aluminum" is?

Some type of alloy? And I wonder how it would hold up to yearsa of
salt water and electrolysis?

When they say alloy, it's generally a percentage of magnesium and a
couple of other trace elements. Most aluminum boats are made from
5000 series aluminum/magnesium alloy - the differences are in the
amount of mgnesium per use specifications.

As to strength - almost forever. There was an experiment done by
ALCOA (which is referenced by almost all aluminum boat manufacturers)
WAY back when with long term exposure and they stopped the experiment
with the 5000 series aluminum because nothing happened - zero, zip,
nada.

The main problem with aluminum has been fabrication - for years (much
like steel as well), the only true way to built an aluminum boat was
rivets, but as welding techniques improved, it became viable to start
producing welded hulls with plate aluminum instead of sheet.

With modern etching, paint and powder coating techniques, aluminum
will last a long time with little or no corrosion.

Sounds good to me. I have a little dingy kind fo thing that was made
back in the 50's that was all rivet None of the strategic ones are
loose but some on the top side are. like the oar mounts and back where
the engine mount was.