imagineero wrote:
Id really be interested in getting feedback from anyone who has lived
aboard a ferrocement boat and has something good to say about it....
these boats come up for sale every now and then in aus, and usually
cheap! While every indicidual boat has its plusses and minuses, it
would be nice to know a few general things about them~

Theoretically they can be a solution for a cheap and strong
hull if properly constructed, that is, poured in one session
from inside, vibrated through the steel frame and mesh to
ensure no voids and finished by a team of professional
plasters to get a smooth finish with sufficient layer
coverage of the steel to avoid later rust leaching - not an
easy task.

The main trouble is, as another poster comments, too many
were amateur built without always conforming to the above
and you're never going to know unless you do a destruction test.

I saw one once that was exactly that - a destruction test. A
professionally built Endurance 35 (Peter Ibold design) that
went aground on rock on a falling tide and got broken up
when an onshore storm blew up on the change of tide. I went
down to look at the pieces next low tide and found a section
of topside where the inner and outer skins flapped open,
hinging on the mesh - they had been plastered separately
from inside and outside and the cement had not bonded in the
middle.