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#1
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Ferro-Cement
What is the deal with Ferro-Cement? What positives and negatives are
there to it? I keep seeing ferrocement hulls for sale, but don't know whether to give them a serious consideration. Is it seaworthy? Is the only factor strength to weight, meaning are they just too heavy? Any thoughts? -iain |
#2
posted to alt.sailing
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Ferro-Cement
"Iain" wrote in message oups.com... What is the deal with Ferro-Cement? What positives and negatives are there to it? I keep seeing ferrocement hulls for sale, but don't know whether to give them a serious consideration. Is it seaworthy? Is the only factor strength to weight, meaning are they just too heavy? Any thoughts? -iain Negatives The reo can rust inside the cement and you wont know where the prob is lightning stike will destroy the hull as the reo heats up and expands faster than the cement They are usually home made Hard to insure Positives. the cement is easy to repair they are cheap there are really well insulated DP |
#3
posted to alt.sailing
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Ferro-Cement
Iain wrote:
What is the deal with Ferro-Cement? What positives and negatives are there to it? I keep seeing ferrocement hulls for sale, but don't know whether to give them a serious consideration. Is it seaworthy? Is the only factor strength to weight, meaning are they just too heavy? Any thoughts? -iain Anecdotal vs. the scientific fact you probably want= just ignore me. One of the guys I worked with, Art Hall, was building a cement boat. I commented that I had spent many years crabbing off a WWII cement boat in Monterey Bay as it decomposed. He told me about how they were better engineered and stronger then wood or plastic. Stuff like "The longer you have them in the water, the stronger they become." I asked him if anybody he knew had finished theirs yet and he told me about 3 friends that had. The punch line to each of the completed boats was ~"His sunk off the Catalina" or ~"He sunk off of Puerto Vallarta." Anyway, of the three guys he knew, all had sunk. Last I heard from Art, after ~10 years of work he had finally turned his hull overyou build them upside down and was getting the rest of the work done. I haven't heard from Art in 20 years so I assume he either got to old to finish it or became the 4th in the series of cement submarine captains. I am not saying they are all unsafe. I heard one of the rum runner boats that anchored outside the territorial waters of SF to supply booze was a cement boat and it went on to haul lumber for decades. Problem is a 40' cement boat probably shouldn't be a first project for anyone. I would even own one though not as a sailing vessel. Specifically if one was in a marina and I wanted to live aboard, a cement boat would probably provide the best bang for the buck. Rick |
#4
posted to alt.sailing
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Ferro-Cement
Well, i don't think I will be looking too closely at any more of these
hulls. The negatives sound like they outweigh the positives for me. Anyways, i appreciate the knowledge. -Iain Rick Cortese wrote: Iain wrote: What is the deal with Ferro-Cement? What positives and negatives are there to it? I keep seeing ferrocement hulls for sale, but don't know whether to give them a serious consideration. Is it seaworthy? Is the only factor strength to weight, meaning are they just too heavy? Any thoughts? -iain Anecdotal vs. the scientific fact you probably want= just ignore me. One of the guys I worked with, Art Hall, was building a cement boat. I commented that I had spent many years crabbing off a WWII cement boat in Monterey Bay as it decomposed. He told me about how they were better engineered and stronger then wood or plastic. Stuff like "The longer you have them in the water, the stronger they become." I asked him if anybody he knew had finished theirs yet and he told me about 3 friends that had. The punch line to each of the completed boats was ~"His sunk off the Catalina" or ~"He sunk off of Puerto Vallarta." Anyway, of the three guys he knew, all had sunk. Last I heard from Art, after ~10 years of work he had finally turned his hull overyou build them upside down and was getting the rest of the work done. I haven't heard from Art in 20 years so I assume he either got to old to finish it or became the 4th in the series of cement submarine captains. I am not saying they are all unsafe. I heard one of the rum runner boats that anchored outside the territorial waters of SF to supply booze was a cement boat and it went on to haul lumber for decades. Problem is a 40' cement boat probably shouldn't be a first project for anyone. I would even own one though not as a sailing vessel. Specifically if one was in a marina and I wanted to live aboard, a cement boat would probably provide the best bang for the buck. Rick |
#5
posted to alt.sailing
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Ferro-Cement
Well, there are a lot of good things about ferrocement boats. (I wrote boat,
not unfinished hulls which will give you a lot of work) On the positive side: Extremely strong, easy to repair, not "jerky" in unsteady winds as lighter boats, seaworthy The negative is basically weight and finish. A 40 feet fully equipped sail boat will easily weigh 15.000 kilo Bjørn "Iain" wrote in message oups.com... Well, i don't think I will be looking too closely at any more of these hulls. The negatives sound like they outweigh the positives for me. Anyways, i appreciate the knowledge. -Iain Rick Cortese wrote: Iain wrote: What is the deal with Ferro-Cement? What positives and negatives are there to it? I keep seeing ferrocement hulls for sale, but don't know whether to give them a serious consideration. Is it seaworthy? Is the only factor strength to weight, meaning are they just too heavy? Any thoughts? -iain Anecdotal vs. the scientific fact you probably want= just ignore me. One of the guys I worked with, Art Hall, was building a cement boat. I commented that I had spent many years crabbing off a WWII cement boat in Monterey Bay as it decomposed. He told me about how they were better engineered and stronger then wood or plastic. Stuff like "The longer you have them in the water, the stronger they become." I asked him if anybody he knew had finished theirs yet and he told me about 3 friends that had. The punch line to each of the completed boats was ~"His sunk off the Catalina" or ~"He sunk off of Puerto Vallarta." Anyway, of the three guys he knew, all had sunk. Last I heard from Art, after ~10 years of work he had finally turned his hull overyou build them upside down and was getting the rest of the work done. I haven't heard from Art in 20 years so I assume he either got to old to finish it or became the 4th in the series of cement submarine captains. I am not saying they are all unsafe. I heard one of the rum runner boats that anchored outside the territorial waters of SF to supply booze was a cement boat and it went on to haul lumber for decades. Problem is a 40' cement boat probably shouldn't be a first project for anyone. I would even own one though not as a sailing vessel. Specifically if one was in a marina and I wanted to live aboard, a cement boat would probably provide the best bang for the buck. Rick |
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