Concrete boat

[Wansworth]

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Never need maintenance

But nice to see the workers properly dressed, tweeds and ties.

 

[Wansworth]

Never need maintenance

But nice to see the workers properly dressed, tweeds and ties.

Yes,all gone to the dogs with sports wear

 

[Frank Holden]

Back in the dream time when this vid was made young unzuders and strayans would save enough money to go by ship to the Old Dart - typical fare about £100 - 4 berth E deck. Work there for a year or two as they saved enough to pay the fare home again.
The brighter ones amongst them would build a ferro yacht and sail home.
Bugger all value at the end of it but a few bags of cement and some chicken wire v maybe 400 UKP?

 

[The Q]

I can just remember the end of the concrete boat building, I believe that's Windboats Marine, they still exist but are no longer in Wroxham as river side land is too valuable. They've moved to North Walsham and also produce Hardy and Gunfleet boats..
Unfortunately that boats broads registration number is not visible or I'd be able to tell you is she's still in hire/ afloat etc.
There's about 20 ex Windboats hire boats still on the broads, most are from the concrete boat era, but that won't include hulls they built for other hire yards and private owners.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

I used to sail on a ferro Hartley ketch.

On reflection, the owner ,felt that ferro wasn't worth it as the hull is only about 15% of the total cost of a sailing boat.

It was built to go world girdling but that never happened. It was 46 feet and weighed 23 tons. Sailed really well.

 

[rogerthebodger]

I used to sail on a ferro Hartley ketch.

On reflection, the owner ,felt that ferro wasn't worth it as the hull is only about 15% of the total cost of a sailing boat.

It was built to go world girdling but that never happened. It was 46 feet and weighed 23 tons. Sailed really well.

That is very true which is why there were at one time so many non completer projects as all the other equipment still costs the same.

When Birmingham was rebuilt a lot of reinforced concrete was used but the concrete was not made waterproof so water got in and started to damage the structure. This is what also happened with ferro boats and started cracking the hull structure.

Wit modem enforced concrete this is not such a problem but GRP boats has taken over due to the mass production and less maintenance and the construction in factories is not for ferro boats due to the cost of the labour which originally was the builder /owners labour except the final plastering

The rest of the build does require greated skills

 

[Sybarite]

I often thought that an exercise bike linked to a generator would serve a double purpose.

 

[rogerthebodger]

I often thought that an exercise bike linked to a generator would serve a double purpose.

Concrete boats mak be a little heavy to power with an excise bike but one of these con beat any traffic congestion charges

Meet the man who cycled down the Thames on a floating bike

 

[davidej]

When I started work, I used to go up to town by train, passing a yard at South Benfleet.
There was the framework for a concrete yacht.

I got enthusiastic about the idea and read up about the technique.

However I came to my senses when I realized that there was never any progress and the steelwork was just rusting away.


There is a concrete yacht in the yard here that the owner worked on assiduously for several summers and seemed to get it within an ace of launching. Then he lost interest and it is now gently deteriorating.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

When I started work, I used to go up to town by train, passing a yard at South Benfleet.
There was the framework for a concrete yacht.

I got enthusiastic about the idea and read up about the technique.

However I came to my senses when I realized that there was never any progress and the steelwork was just rusting away.

Saw something similar not far from St Just Cornwall in the late 60s

 

[Wansworth]

I have been on one back in the 1970s it was the wooden hull of a Boston oyster dredger(sailing) and it was brought back to Yarmouth onthe IOW where the hull was sheathed in expanded steel mesh and cemented up…….was a sucessful job and ended up sailing to the med as far as I know…….the interior of course was the original wooden boat

 

[rogerthebodger]

Ferro-cement Boat Book - Hartley Boat Plans

Plans & Books – Ferrocement

I think the boat in the video is a hartley tahitian

Tahitian 45-50 - Hartley Boat Plans

Build Your Own Boat - Contsruction Methods | Hartley Boat Plans



We have several ferro boats at our club several used as live aboards others just unused

 

[iantomlinson]

Some were absolutely beautiful lines. The endurance 35. I nearly bought a cheap one before I realised the pitfalls.

 

[DanTribe]

Was the narrator Mr Chumley-Warner?
A friend had an Endurance 35 which he fitted out from a Windboats hull . She sailed very well but did need a good breeze to get going properly.
There was quite an industry building ferro boats at Fambridge in the 1970s, Mike Peyton was enthusiastic, I think he had 3 boats from there., all named something-Stone .

 

[penfold]

Lodestone

 

[Snowgoose-1]

That is very true which is why there were at one time so many non completer projects as all the other equipment still costs the same.

When Birmingham was rebuilt a lot of reinforced concrete was used but the concrete was not made waterproof so water got in and started to damage the structure. This is what also happened with ferro boats and started cracking the hull structure.

Wit modem enforced concrete this is not such a problem but GRP boats has taken over due to the mass production and less maintenance and the construction in factories is not for ferro boats due to the cost of the labour which originally was the builder /owners labour except the final plastering

The rest of the build does require greated skills

Was the narrator Mr Chumley-Warner?
A friend had an Endurance 35 which he fitted out from a Windboats hull . She sailed very well but did need a good breeze to get going properly.
There was quite an industry building ferro boats at Fambridge in the 1970s, Mike Peyton was enthusiastic, I think he had 3 boats from there., all named something-Stone .

There was I believe an enthusiastic builder of ferro in Tollesbury - whose name was Bill.
Affectionate known as "Portland Bill".
When the armature was complete, and before cement added, they looked quite the work of art. Shame almost to cover them up. I seem to remember a smack at Tollesbury of this kind for some years.

 

[Wansworth]

Lodestone

Yes he built several sucessful unusual designs by Mr Hill

 

[LittleSister]

I sailed many hundreds, maybe thousands, of miles in a friend's home-made ferro boat - East Coast, South Coast, Netherlands, Belgium, France as far as Brest, etc. We had so much fun, and so many adventures. Priceless.

There are/were quite a lot of rather rough (literally!) ferro boats, but also some real good ones. One we came across in the Netherlands was an excellent roomy and beautifully fitted-out 40ft(?) flush-decker, named 'Dutch Concrete'. The owner was a boatbuilder, and built it for himself, but also hoped it would result in commissions for his yard to build the like.

One perhaps overlooked advantage (and danger!) of home-built ferro back then is that you could start building a boat before you could actually afford to buy a boat (at least of the size and type). You could then construct and fit out the boat as earnings came in (or not!), and the boats, and your dreams, kept you motivated and nose to the grindstone at work.


There's a ferro dinghy in the Museum of the Broads at Stalham, built, IIRC, as an apprentice training project at Windboats in Wroxham. Ferro construction isn't best suited to small boats. Apparently it takes 6 or 8 people to lift that dinghy!

There were also the ferro barges/lighters, such as those now picturesquely reinforcing the banks of the River Severn, and stopping it getting too intimate with the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal.

 

[Bajansailor]

I have a copy of this book - it explains ferro boats fairly well.
How to build a ferro-cement boat: John Samson, Geoff Wellens: Amazon.com: Books

Some Norwegian friends took their ferro 39' 19 tonne gaff ketch (Colin Archer type) around the world in the late 70's, and then on a couple of Atlantic circuits in the 80's and 90's - I sailed with them on a passage from Southampton to Lisbon with a stop in Oporto on the way, and she was a very comfortable sea boat - we were tramping along on a close reach down channel with about 20 knots apparent, and sitting around the saloon table eating supper very happily.