The pros and cons of ferrocement boats.

[Lloydroberts]

I have noticed a few ferrocement yachts for sale at prices that seem very reasonable for size by comparison. These are around 25 years old.

Has anyone got any experience of owning such a yacht and any advice on maintenance needs/pitfalls etc.

Tia.

 

[Iliade]

Almost without exception they will be home built and/or home fitted-out. Some (S.Y. Pause) will be superb world-girdlers. Others will not. Watch out for, amongst other things, over-engineered hulls which are just too heavy, particularly at the ends, and corroding metal reinforcing.

The stuff can be a mare to drill.

Allegedly they are easy to repair.

Like glyberfarce, paint is optional.

I was on a fairly new 1970's ferro boat which struck the Goodwins in a wave trough. She cracked from gunwale to keel but we were able to motor home, albeit with a blue and orange escort. (I was about ten, so details scant)

 

[Bobc]

Very heavy, very slow, and if you hit something and crack the hull, it's trash.

 

[LittleSister]

Reason for low price is because many are wary of them.

Quite a few are poorly built (especially in terms of over-built, as said previously) - you can usually spot these a mile away - but there are some absolute beauties out there (probably most would never know they were ferro), not only, but mainly, the professionally built ones.

Yes, overbuilt ones will probably be slow, but they certainly aren't all slow. Contrary to what you would think, a ferro hull is not necessarily all that heavy, but it's a form of construction best suited to big boats (you can't scale down the thickness of the hull too far), and smaller ones do pay a significant weight penalty. (There's even a ferro dinghy in the Norfolk Broads museum, but it's VERY heavy.)

If there are not detailed records of the build you may find difficulty getting other than 3rd party insurance without cores being taken and assessed by a surveyor.

Yes, very easy to repair. I was in a group of boats setting off from Essex to Holland years ago. As we were settting off from a pontoon in Essex, one of the ferro boats got caught by the tide, impaled on a projecting scaffold pole, and holed just above the waterline. Having checked he was OK, the rest of us headed off for our voyage. He stayed, repaired the hole with epoxy cement, caught us up the next day. Another ferro boat I knew was accidentally grounded, and as the tide went out it lay with the turn of the bilge on the stump of a post or something similar, and holed. Again easily repaired (clearing up the mess from the flooding was the big job).

I've happily sailed thousands of miles on ferro boats, and wouldn't rule out owning one, but I'd want to get a good understanding of how well built it was before I parted with my cash.

 

[ferroboat]

Almost without exception they will be home built and/or home fitted-out.

(If there are not detailed records of the build you may find difficulty getting other than 3rd party insurance without cores being taken and assessed by a surveyor.)


What a load of tosh. I have a 1982 Windboat 44 ( Windboats of wroxham built oysters)
She is fully comp insured by Yachtmaster Insurance with an agreed valuation,no detailed build records or core sample requested.
Surveyed by Martin Evens twice. once 8 years ago when i bought her and again last year as my insurance company want a survey every 7 years, again no core sample required.
She is a heavy displacement sea kindly. safe.dry blue water cruiser with a decent turn of speed.
There are some very good Ferro Boat websites,one of them is http://www.ferrocement.org/
I would not buy a home built one


https://moonshineofmersea.wordpress.com/

 

[BrianH]

I have noticed a few ferrocement yachts for sale at prices that seem very reasonable for size by comparison. These are around 25 years old.

Has anyone got any experience of owning such a yacht and any advice on maintenance needs/pitfalls etc.

Tia.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?275855-45ft-sailing-Yacht-for-%A31200-on-ebay-anyone&p=2987300#post2987300

 

[Seajet]

Not so easy to repair if running into something underwater, the mesh armature means one cannot stuff something in the hole !

I've read here that insurance is tricky on home built ones.

 

[Seven Spades]

My question is why, why would you want to bug a boat that is slow and heavy? I assume it is because it fits your budget but with a bit of imagination you could get a really nice fibreglass boat like this for next to nothing.


http://www.yachtworld.co.uk/boats/1...aft-Apache-2663685/United-States#.VLTLjsZrY9Q

 

[BurnitBlue]

I owned a 52 foot ferro boat for two weeks. We (wife and I) were sailing in Yugoslavia when the guns started blazing. Most sensible yacht owners were fleeing out of there. We were planning to when we saw a 52 foot boat built in OZ for a ridiculous price because the Ozzy owner was desperate to get out of there. By air. So I bought it.

Wife took the overland route back to Sweden while I planned to follow after I decided what to do about my now TWO boats.

While still dithering after two weeks I was surprised to see a Norwegian guy aboard my new 52 footer. After an exchange of words h showed me a bill of sail for the boat which he bought cheap from a woman (my wife as it turned out) he met on the ferry to Sweden.

So I owned one for two weeks. My wife rejoined me later during a lull in the fighting and we sailed our boat through the NATO blockade to Italy.

By that time my ex 52 footer had a one meter diameter hole in her starboard side.

My grateful thanks to my sensible wife for getting me out of that folly.

 

[alant]

Very heavy, very slow, and if you hit something and crack the hull, it's trash.

Weight depends upon size.
Reportedly lighter than steel 40' +.

 

[jwilson]

Reason for low price is because many are wary of them.

Quite a few are poorly built (especially in terms of over-built, as said previously) - you can usually spot these a mile away - but there are some absolute beauties out there (probably most would never know they were ferro), not only, but mainly, the professionally built ones.

Yes, overbuilt ones will probably be slow, but they certainly aren't all slow. Contrary to what you would think, a ferro hull is not necessarily all that heavy, but it's a form of construction best suited to big boats (you can't scale down the thickness of the hull too far), and smaller ones do pay a significant weight penalty. (There's even a ferro dinghy in the Norfolk Broads museum, but it's VERY heavy.)

If there are not detailed records of the build you may find difficulty getting other than 3rd party insurance without cores being taken and assessed by a surveyor.

Yes, very easy to repair. I was in a group of boats setting off from Essex to Holland years ago. As we were settting off from a pontoon in Essex, one of the ferro boats got caught by the tide, impaled on a projecting scaffold pole, and holed just above the waterline. Having checked he was OK, the rest of us headed off for our voyage. He stayed, repaired the hole with epoxy cement, caught us up the next day. Another ferro boat I knew was accidentally grounded, and as the tide went out it lay with the turn of the bilge on the stump of a post or something similar, and holed. Again easily repaired (clearing up the mess from the flooding was the big job).

I've happily sailed thousands of miles on ferro boats, and wouldn't rule out owning one, but I'd want to get a good understanding of how well built it was before I parted with my cash.

+1 on ferro boats - when they are good they can be very very good, when they are bad they are horrid. Done properly on boats about 35 ft plus ferro is a very good very tough ultra-low-maintenance material, and not necessarily any heavier than a similar sized steel yacht.

Forget cracking paving slabs, ferro is a tightly woven steel mesh-y core with just enough special cement in to fill the tiny gaps. Just as well built GRP boats are a tightly woven mesh-y core of (ISN'T GLASS FRAGILE - GOD HELP YOU) glass with just enough dissolvable plastic resin in to fill the tiny gaps.

For every good ferro boat though there are probably two or three horrors, poor amateur built hulls mostly now crumbling away in corners of boatyards, and that feeds the prejudices. Amateur boats can be good too, but there are more bad ones.

If you can't tell what the hull is made of at a glance, a ferro boat is probably a good one - see http://www.yachtsnet.co.uk/s4288-moored2-ss.jpg which will be up for sale this spring. It was exhibited at the Earls Court Boat Show when new in 1980.

 

[KellysEye]

>What a load of tosh. I have a 1982 Windboat 44 ( Windboats of wroxham built oysters)
She is fully comp insured by Yachtmaster Insurance with an agreed valuation,no detailed build records or core sample requested.
Surveyed by Martin Evens twice. once 8 years ago when i bought her and again last year as my insurance company want a survey every 7 years, again no core sample required.
She is a heavy displacement sea kindly. safe.dry blue water cruiser with a decent turn of speed.
There are some very good Ferro Boat websites,one of them is http://www.ferrocement.org/
I would not buy a home built one

I agree, we know a Kiwi couple who circumnavigated in a professionally built Ferro boat with no problems.

 

[mjcoon]

I have noticed a few ferrocement yachts for sale at prices that seem very reasonable for size by comparison. These are around 25 years old.

Has anyone got any experience of owning such a yacht and any advice on maintenance needs/pitfalls etc.

Tia.

I believe that Mike Peyton of YM owned a succession of ferro boats, often named something-stone in recognition of their geology. So he believed in them. But I don't know where he got them. No doubt YM's archive would know...

Mike.

 

[duncan99210]

The problem with ferro boats is that they were and remain something of a niche, off the main track of GRP or metal hulls. As has been said, there are some very good ones out there, well made and maintained that will represent a bargain as the prejudice against the material leads to lower selling prices than you'd expect for a similar sized yacht. The downside is that it might well be difficult to shift the boat when you come to sell.

I've never owned a ferro boat but I've seen some horrors out there. I recall looking at one in Greece. At first glance, it was a lovely looking boat but if you got close to the hull and looked along it, you could see the irregularities in the surface. The hull was very thick and when we left the yard, it was still sitting there awaiting a buyer, despite being quite well priced.

So what? If you can find the right boat at the right price then ferro is a good as any other material but do get a good survey and check with a few insurers that you can get the level of cover you require.

 

[JumbleDuck]

If there are not detailed records of the build you may find difficulty getting other than 3rd party insurance without cores being taken and assessed by a surveyor.

What a load of tosh. I have a 1982 Windboat 44 ( Windboats of wroxham built oysters)
She is fully comp insured by Yachtmaster Insurance with an agreed valuation,no detailed build records or core sample requested.

I suspect that "built by Windboats" is quite detailed enough. It would only be for "built in his back yard by a bloke whose plasterer mate helped out" efforts that more detail would be useful.

 

[mjcoon]

I've never owned a ferro boat but I've seen some horrors out there. I recall looking at one in Greece. At first glance, it was a lovely looking boat but if you got close to the hull and looked along it, you could see the irregularities in the surface. The hull was very thick and when we left the yard, it was still sitting there awaiting a buyer, despite being quite well priced.

Neither of those attributes seems to add up to "horror"! Was there something else, in addition to prejudice?

Mike.

 

[Tranona]

I suspect that "built by Windboats" is quite detailed enough. It would only be for "built in his back yard by a bloke whose plasterer mate helped out" efforts that more detail would be useful.

Yes, Windboats hulls have a good reputation being built under supervision. However they inevitably ended up expensive to buy and finish to a good standard. The sad thing is that after a few years the poor resale value means they end up at the bottom of the market and many are poorly maintained, so although the hull may be sound the expensive bits inside are past it. As already suggested if you are not bothered about resale value and can afford the upkeep they can be good buys. The Endurance 40 and 45 are among the best designs.

 

[snowleopard]

As can be seen from this thread, there is a huge amount of prejudice against ferro so you can buy them very cheaply. In the early 70s it was the new wonder material and loads of people built boats that were far too big because they didn't appreciate that if you got a 50 ft hull for £1,000 it would cost as much to fit out as e.g. a wooden hull costing £10,000. The real horrors are the ones where the home builders thought they'd save a few hundred by plastering them themselves. I recall seeing one in a shed in the Surrey docks that was an average of 2" thick and looked like a swallow's nest. Good ones are very good and are often assumed to be GRP because of the finish.

They have several big advantages, not least that they can be repaired anywhere in the world.

 

[alant]

I suspect that "built by Windboats" is quite detailed enough. It would only be for "built in his back yard by a bloke whose plasterer mate helped out" efforts that more detail would be useful.

IIRC, a Windboat 35' Endurance, was Boat of the Show at Earls Court, but ran aground on East Coast on way home & poundered itself to complete destruction on a boulder strewn beach. No ground anchors laid after grounding apparently.

 

[BurnitBlue]

There is a very good reason for the prejudice against ferro. The example I owned was pro built by a world class designer. She was a sister ship to the "floating footpath" that circumnavigated the Antarctic by Griffiths.

She came complete with a pro filming documentary kit to celebrate the Australian centennial. Her name was actually centennial. Dive bottles the lot for a give away price. The n
Norwegian got a bargain because I left all equipment on board.

I don't know what caused the damage whether it was a direct hit or a glancing rebound but the damage was over a very large area an substantial but repairable with the right materials epoxy, cement, and mesh.

I never even slept aboard because I was living on our GRP boat about a hundred yards away.

The main failure as far as I am concerned is the apparant low abrasion resistance. I heard of two ferro boats that sank after being abraded y coral in benign conditions. One of them dragged gently onto a reef with no swell but the keel wore through in hours an the boat became a total loss.

OK at sea though. Ie stay away from the tropics and that pesky coral.