70s Boats, Any left.

[elliotmc]

Those old enough will remember the Ferro Cement boats being built in peoples gardens, are there any left or did they all become hardcore for someone new concrete drive.

 

[Graham376]

There are still a few floating around but I've seen two scrapped in the yard.

 

[kingsebi]

My friend has a ferro cement sailboat on the canary islands, but I don’t know if it was built in the 70s.

 

[BobnLesley]

There were a lot of ferro-cement boats around in NZ when we were there in 2019/20. As I understood it, the cost of shipping made and still makes new boats/fibreglass hulls expensive over there, so there we a lot built locally in the 70/80s.
They, indeed all boats are still being maintained, repaired and refitted; NZ marinas have a much higher proportion of 'older' boats than you would see in a European or North American one.

 

[Minerva]

I’ve seen a few ferro boats for sale over the past few years. I’ve also seen a number of posts on Facebook whereby ferro owners are asking who still provides insurance cover for them.

I can only deduce that there is a significant likelihood of any existing boats are effectively uninsurable.

 

[kingsebi]

My friend has insurance for his boat. In fact he lately got a considerable sum because the boat was damaged in a storm on the hard. I remember when I first met him in Sardinia he had sailed over from Turkey where the boat had been moored to a wall for two years during Covid. Due to travel restrictions he had been unable to get there. The hull had chunks taken out at the waterline where the boat had hit the wall, but otherwise everything was intact. I thought that a GRP boat probably wouldn’t have survived that kind of treatment. I know nothing about ferro cement boats but to me that seemed to be a testimony of their strength.

 

[Stemar]

Rappey of this parish has one, called Pharoh, which ought to be a PUNishable offence

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Come to the Isle of Wight. If Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ was about boats, he’d have filmed it here. 2 ferro boats in Yarmouth currently, and plenty of other 70s bric a brac around. Early westerlys, old IOR boats, any old iron. Usually covered in 10 years of lichen, bits of tattered sail just about hanging on, all no longer needing a mooring, because it's firmly attached to the sea bottom by weed.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

There are some fine ferocemment boats about. The problem is insuring the hull as very hard to survey. Probably no more likely to sink if built right than grp

 

[geem]

My friend has insurance for his boat. In fact he lately got a considerable sum because the boat was damaged in a storm on the hard. I remember when I first met him in Sardinia he had sailed over from Turkey where the boat had been moored to a wall for two years during Covid. Due to travel restrictions he had been unable to get there. The hull had chunks taken out at the waterline where the boat had hit the wall, but otherwise everything was intact. I thought that a GRP boat probably wouldn’t have survived that kind of treatment. I know nothing about ferro cement boats but to me that seemed to be a testimony of their strength.

My understanding of them based of somebody I knew who had one was quite different.
He hit a big chanel marker that put a hole in the hull. It was not a big hole but by the time he removed the damage material the hole was substantially bigger. The hull seemed to crush on impact. It wasn't obvious it had done this until he undertook repairs

 

[kingsebi]

My understanding of them based of somebody I knew who had one was quite different.
He hit a big chanel marker that put a hole in the hull. It was not a big hole but by the time he removed the damage material the hole was substantially bigger. The hull seemed to crush on impact. It wasn't obvious it had done this until he undertook repairs

That is interesting I wasn’t aware of that.

 

[Norman_E]

Rappey of this parish has one, called Pharoh, which ought to be a PUNishable offence

Yachtmarine in Marmaris used to have a steel boat called Irony.

 

[Goldie]

There’s a very nice ferro boat here: Hartley RORC 39 For Sale, 11.90m, 1979

I’ve been shown around her and this boat was built and fitted out to a very high standard. At that price, it’s a steal for someone.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

You might want to budget for new sails. They are 28 years old.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I'd suggest that a 1970s ferro boat that is still in commission will be one of the good ones - bad ones will have disintegrated by now!

The perennial problem with ferro is that it is either very good or very bad, with little middle ground. Because it was seen as a cheap way to build a yacht in the backyard, a lot were built by amateurs. Of course, some were good, and the builder employed professionals such as plasterers for the critical parts of the construction. But some were bad, with poor consolidation, poor surface finish and incorrect concrete mixes. An awful lot then fell foul of the usual problem - the hull is about a third of the cost of a finished boat, so "cheap" construction methods don't actually save all that much on the finished cost.

I think the insurance issues are because distinguishing good from bad is not easy; for example, water penetration of the armature could be difficult to detect. And an incorrect concrete mix would give rise to the sort of issue mentioned by @geem. Damage to a well-constructed ferro boat should be confined to the immediate area of the damage by the reinforcing material; that's what it's there for. A friend with a ferro boat had damage caused by bashing against a pontoon in bad weather; I understand it was easily repaired.

 

[DanTribe]

I sailed from Fambridge during the boom ferro building time. Many are still going. Mike Peyton's Brimstone, Lodestone and Touchstone, I think. A friend built a lovely Endurance, still in Heybridge Basin, Gem on the Crouch cruises regularly. Another friend sailed a Colin Archer to New Zealand and still much used
There are also several bawleys around the East coast.

 

[LittleSister]

My understanding of them based of somebody I knew who had one was quite different.
He hit a big chanel marker that put a hole in the hull. It was not a big hole but by the time he removed the damage material the hole was substantially bigger. The hull seemed to crush on impact. It wasn't obvious it had done this until he undertook repairs

By contrast, I was in one of several ferro boats going from the East Coast to a ferro rally in the Netherlands (at the time, mid 80s, these rallies alternated annually between the Netherlands and Britain). On departure from the Crouch, one of the boats was caught by the tide and impaled just above the waterline on a scaffold pole or similar projecting from some works on the jetty. The owner borrowed a large tub of epoxy cement from one of the other boats, repaired the hole in the hull there and then, and caught up to us in the Netherlands a day or so later.

We had such a fantastic time at the rally, a night in Colijnsplaat, a fun race up and down the Oosterschelde, a cruise in company to Goes, where we tied up in on the quay in the centre of town and were treated royally by our hosts for a wonderful meal and jovial celebrations ashore. The boats attending were gloriously diverse, ranging from decidedly home-made budget boats, via the weird and whacky, to a very impressive, really smart inside and out 40 foot flush decker, 'Dutch Concrete', built by a professional boatbuilder for his own use and in the hope of gaining commissions for further ferro boats from his yard. The skippers and crews were of all ages and at least as diverse as the boats, but all very friendly. Rigs were Bermudan, gaff and junk, and included sloops and a schooner. Happy days!

 

[Snowgoose-1]

I used to sail on a 46' Hartley. Did everything well.

The owner built the armature . It looked like an Anthony Gormley creation . Lovely to look at without the cement.

A professional team made and applied the cement all in one day. Took about 12 hours. Lots of wet sacks were used.

He never fulfilled the dream of a world cruise . We had lots of East Coast adventures though.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

I met a Kiwi couple on the island of Pantellaria who were halfway through a circumnavigation on their ferro yacht. Honestly, until they told me it was ferro I would never had guessed. The hull was as fair as anything out of a grp mould. Down below there were two noticable differences compared to a grp yacht. It was much cooler compared to my boat and noticable quieter. No audible wave slap and the quayside noises were barely audible. I was impressed, but not impressed enough to buy one.

 

[geem]

There is a ferro cement boat in the shed at Glasson Dock that nicely built. I haven't been inside but I beleive the interior is stunning. You wouldn't a believe it was ferro construction looking at it from the outside. The guy started it in the 70s and still hasn't finished it!
When I first saw it, I thought it was an old boat that he was restoring.