"Chuck Gould" wrote in message
...


One obvious difference I should have mentioned, but didn't, is that
along the E coast you guys like to build towers on your boats. They
are almost unheard of on the W coast. Those towers are quite often
made of aluminum.
---------------------------------

Although aluminum is used, most that I've seen are stainless.

-----------------------------------

One of the boats I recently wrote up for the magazine comes in both an
E Coast and a W Coast version. The support for the hardtop and the
deck rails are aluminum back east, but stainless our west.
---------------------------------

My limited knowledge of metallurgy suggests that aluminum and stainless can
react (electrolysis) unless careful attention is used to physically insulate
them from each other.

In a salt water environment I think I'd rather have aluminum supports on an
aluminum boat and stainless on a fiberglass boat.

Eisboch