On Thu, 03 Aug 2006 10:28:39 -0400, DSK wrote:

Well, there's the rust. Then there's the fact that it's not
as easy to repair as fiberglass. And it rusts.


Joe wrote:
You are out of your mind, Steel is much easier nd cheaper to repair and
can be repaired in most ports around the world.

Fiberglass can be repaired with stuff from Lowes. You don't
even need to be in port. You don't need a welding machine.
Patches or rolls of fiberglass cloth & jugs of resin are a
lot easier to stow than spare steel plates, and they are
much easier to form into the desired shape.

Having made my living for a while as a welder (on offshore deck
sections) and having done a lot of glass work and chased a lot of core
rot, I'd say it depends on the type of repair. If I needed to repair
a holed hull, steel gets the vote for easier and more reliable. I
would not trust any yard in my area to do a holed (particularly below
the water line) hull in glass. If you don't feather back the edges
properly and back lap the repair, there will be a weak spot do to the
loss of the monolithic nature of the woven roving, mat and cloth. Not
sure I would ever trust it. Not an issue with steel.

That said, I'd still rather have a glass boat. Did someone mention
rust as an issue?

Frank




... I could repaire a 3ft
hole in about 3-4 hrs with steel it. take weeks or months on fragile
glass

???

you need to find less lazy workmen.

A 3 ft hole in fiberglass should take about an hour to
repair, then a day to cure. And it wouldn't start rusting
before you'd finished the patch.







Steel punch shot is the way to go on a steel boat.


Cheap and no galvanic corrosion, but less effective as
ballast. Oh well, everything is a trade off.





Have you seen Around the Horn by Irving Johnson?

Yes

... Not enough ballest on
a sailing ship my ass...all the flying P's were steel..

They were also cargo ships. And yes, they would have sailed
much better (not to mention being safer) if they had a
higher ballast ratio.


.... You pulling
these spec's outta thin air or what?


Nope, basic physics.




Well a crappy mold will make a fiberglass hull look like crap, I've
seen such cheap FG hulls it looks like they used hatchets to make the
molds. You need skilled labor doing both tasks.

Agreed.

I assure you there are more skilled welders on earth that FG experts.


Maybe that's true in Texas. Fiberglass is hardly some new
cutting edge voodoo technology, it's only been around about
60 years now. Heck there are 20 year old carbon fiber &
Kevlar boats.

If steel were easier to work then more production boats
would be made of it, since labor cost is the highest factor
in commercial boatbuilding.



As a Navy veteran, I can tell you that infinite man hours
and oceans of red-lead primer are not enough to keep a steel
vessel from rusting away beneath your feet.


How old is Ol Ironsides?


News flash: the USS Constitution is made of wood. "Old
Ironsides" is just a nickname.


1.)Total idiots were in command or your ship or they were inept.

That may have been true

2.) Total idiots were repairing your ship or they were inept.

Also may have been true

3.) It was a throw away vessel on it's last leg, abused and neglected
all its life due to neglect.


That was certainly not true, it was the best in it's class
as determined by INSURV

However it was about 30 years old at that time and had seen
many many many sea miles & hard service.


I ran several fiberglass boats in the navy, they were the ones not able
to do any rough work.

And how many of them were 30 years old?
Actually some of them may have been approaching that, the
Navy started buying fiberglass boats in the mid 1950s.



But if you're going to get shot at, a couple of steel plates
between you & the bullets is very nice. The only thing
better would be some Kevlar or some of that new fiberglass
tank armor.



yeah...right. Fiberglass tank armor.....


Look it up. It's not even top secret any more. News flash:
look for the word "composite" when checking the specs. After
all, do they make bulletproof vests out of steel?

Joe since you already have a steel boat, I'm not going to
try and tell you it's lousy stuff. Besides, it isn't lousy,
it's just not as good (ie strong or durable). Steel is
stronger than wood, but there are more than two choices
these days.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King