People cruise quite happily, of course, in many kinds of different boats.

The book The Nature of Boats by Dave Gerr has an interesting, personal view
of the pros and cons of different materials.

Are you also getting ready for cruising by doing a lot of boating in the
meantime? How do you know you will like it? (It's a wonderful but quite
committed way to live.) What boating skills - and you will need many - are
you developing in the meantime?

This doesn't relate directly to your question, but it puzzles me that you
contemplate something as committed as "cruising" but aren't driven to be
doing at least limited boating along the way. Of course, what do you mean by
"cruising"? Weekends? Years at sea? Blue water or coastal? How large a boat
are you thinking of? Power or sail, diplacement or planing ... ?

====

Charles T. Low
www.boatdocking.com

====

"Meach" wrote in message
ups.com...

I am starting a long (years long mind you) search for a boat. The
length of the search is mostly because my wife and I want to cruise in
about 10 years or so for a number of reason. It would of course be
cool to cruise now, but the long wait affords me the pleasure of taking
my time in finding a boat. One question I come upon and don't have a
great answer for is what are the difference between aluminium and
fiberglass.

I was hoping you all could help me out.

What experiences have you all had with aluminium hulls and decks?
Advantages and disadvantages?

Thanks.

wrote:
snip..
I was just trying to compare prices of brand new basic steel
and aluminium boats of similar sizes.

Why does steel need a lot more maintenance than aluminium ?

Have you ever lived on salt water? If you owned an enameled steel boat
trailer and a galvanized or aluminum version and sailed on the
ocean.....you would learn the difference quickly.
Steel rusts.......aluminum resists corrosion.

wrote:
Are aluminium hulls generally more expensive than fiberglass ?

Yup, aluminium hulls are more expensive than fiberglass. Probably
because the material is more difficult to work with (welding, etc).

It is difficult to findnew boat prices on the web, but I just found two
used boat (1987, Ovni (alu) 150kE, Jeanneau (fiber) 80kE).

Markus

I have done tons of sailing. Racing, week long cruisies crewed on
Races to bermuda, and trips from Boston to Annapolis etc.... So I feel
I have done a fair amount already and I know for a fact I want to
"cruise" meaning for several months

I also love to sail sunfish for what its worth