Unfortunately your experience provides fuel to these other responders who
actually have no experience with steel boats. I will not dispute your
experience, it happens far too often, but I must ask what effort you
expended to find expertice with steel hull corrosion? There really are
people out there that know how do deal with rust economically and
effectively. If the other casual readers of this thread think that rust is
such an insurmountable issue for steel boats, they should consider the
plagues of other lower density hull construction methods like fiberglass and
wood with fiber osmosis, rot, the lack of ability to host high load
fasteners and the cost or effectiveness of their repair.
Steve


"Moonshadow" wrote in message
...
ray lunder wrote:
Anyone owned a steel hulled sailboat in the 40 foot range and have
some advice on what to look for when buying one? Thanks as always.

I have owned one steel sailboat, and will never, ever own a steel boat
again.

The rusting just never stops.

Any injury to or failure of the corrosion protection system must be
repaired immediately and perfectly, or the rusting area will expand
rapidly and sooner or later threaten the structural integrity of the
vessel.

Despite your vigilance, some (or more often many) parts of your steel
boat, generally the most difficult areas to inspect and repair, will be in
the process of turning to rust.

My advice is to look instead for a good quality fiberglass sailboat, and
save yourself a great deal of trouble.