DSK wrote:
Scotty wrote:
Think I'll stick with glass. I've heard that 'rust never
sleeps'.


I heard that too. In fact I've heard it several times, real
REAL loud!

What is the biggest fiber glass boat built?
Is it conceivable that a large ship could be built of glass?


Dunno about the biggest, the new super-yachts are being
built of fiberglass (well, "composite" but it's basically
fiberglass) upwards of 200' and 700 tons. The Navy had a
class of minesweeps built of fiberglass, don't think they
were as long but they were likely more tonnage.

There's no reason a big ship couldn't be built out of
fiberglass. Nobody's doing it because the facilities are
already in place to build them of steel. It would be
interesting to see if fiberglass commercial hulls could have
a longer service life.


The Navy typical sells it FG hulls at 10-15 yrs, were it's steel
vessels last an average 30-50 yrs. Check out the surplus auctions.

Fiberglass is way to expensive, fragile, and would have to be 1/2 a ft
thick to match the strength of a steel hull ship. Then the upkeep,
polishing, core rott, scratching, cracking, ect ect ect make's it a
maintance nightmare.

Joe


DSK