concrete yachts

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jeffro

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seen one for sale looks pretty good verry cheap in fact compaired to its grp sisters .Being a lifelong pessimist there must some skeletons anyone!

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The proliferation of appaling,amateur built, ferrocement boats in the 70s gave the material a bad name, particularly in this country. However, professionally built ferro boats, provided they are well maintained and undamaged, can be excellent buys. The key lies in a careful survey.

In Australia and South Africa, where there were and, I believe, still are, more professional builders, the material is recognised for what it is - a tough, durable, practical and cheap way to build a hull, bearing in mind that two thirds of the cost of building a boat is in the joinery, fittings and equipment.

Ferro works better, the larger the boat (rather like steel), because the skin has to be a certain minimum thickness. This means the weight penalty below, say, 38ft, is prohibitive.

One major problem with the material is this. Minor bumps and scrapes are very easy and cheap to repair. However, a heavy grounding or prolonged pounding, can send shock waves through the material causing stress cracking and, in terh worst cases, the complete disintegration of the hull. It is also a poor material for Caribbean cruising because is if vulnerable to abrasion by coral

<hr width=100% size=1>JJ
 
I have 2 friends with Endurance ferro boats. They are very pleased with theirs. Both are kept round the central Solent area and look very fine. I like their unrestricted decks where the owners can put up proper deck chairs when at anchor. They have plenty of room below as well. How well they sail, I don'y know but I have heard no complaints. This make should be well worth checking out.

<hr width=100% size=1>I never make the same mistake twice. I always make new ones.
 
As JJ says ..some top rated ones built professonally here in OZ ,still sailing.Its a personal choice I think.. I have seen some " home built " ones that wouldn't even be classed as a good garage...
BrianJ

<hr width=100% size=1>BrianJ
 
Strictly for what it is worth, I have heard that they can be difficult to insure and also that, I think it is, Windward Boats built quite a few hulls in the UK, which have a good reputation?

Mike Peyton, the cartoonist, has had several ferro yachts, don't know if he still has "Touchstone" though.



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It costs the same to fit out and equip steel ,GRP, aluminium and ferro The problem is at the end of the day the only saving of ferro over other materials is the hull building costs which account for approx 25 to 30% of any boat.
So far so good. The downside is that all the fitting out costs (approx 70%of total costs) go down the drain due to the difficulty of selling them and the perception people have.Depreciation and resale are the bogey.
In addition, as has been said on this post there are so many atrocious looking ferro yachts made that people tar them all with the same brush.
Samphire.

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there's a strong tendency to lump together the good with the bad. i recently saw one at wicor marine in portsmouth harbour, the lines were, to be charitable, wavy and the wire mesh was sticking through the cement. disasters like that give the well-built ones a wholly undeserved reputation

the result is that if you want to buy a lot of boat for your money and keep it long term, ferro is a good buy. if you are thinking of re-selling, it's a disaster.

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Yes, Insurance can be a problem, but mainly with amateur-built ones.The company might ask for a survey of a professionally built one but there is no reason it should not offer the same terms as a steel boat if the hull is sound.

Mike still has Touchstone and covers many miles in her every year - many of them sideways though he won't admit it!

<hr width=100% size=1>JJ
 
Terminology

They say that the dogs of this class often built by amateurs, are known as CONCRETE boats. There are some very fime examples of this type of construction, they are known as FERRO-CEMENT.

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One presumes that buying second hand one becomes the beneficiary of all that depreciation, not, I must admit, that I would buy one.

<hr width=100% size=1>John
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.allgadgets.co.uk>http://www.allgadgets.co.uk</A>
 
Have an appalling reputation, due to the large number of badly made home-built versions, that were knocking around.

My broker put me wise to the fact that there are some very good, seaworthy, professionally-built ones around and he was making something of a speciality in insuring them.

His viewpoint will be a very objective one (not and adjective that can usually be applied to yotties about boats) and if you can get in touch with him you'd probably obtain a lot of valuable information.

His name Max Burgess, e-mail is max@yachtmasteruk.co.uk and his telephone no is 01394 615755.

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There are obviously many that satisfy this scenario, "Have an appalling reputation, due to the large number of badly made home-built versions, that were knocking around".
I did however hear one 'conspiracy theory', that the marine tripartite arrangement (between surveyors/insurers/osmosis treatment companies) all of whom are making a good living out of scaring the hell out of people with regard to plastic pox, might have something to do with the bad reputation of ferrocement.
Windboats of Wroxham built many & surely they as reputable builders would not have done so without some regard to the long term results.
Does anyone know how their boats have survived?


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Not sure the argument works. With GRP, you only have plastic pox to scare people with. With ferrocement, you've got reinforcement corrosion, chlorination, concrete cancer...... the list is almost endless. All can be treated, but are expensive to cure, so surely the potential for profit is endless?

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Is too warm here for this to be a problem, but someone told me once that in freezing conditions they do the same as damp concrete does - the water freezes and the concrete flakes off. Seems sensible (unless you own a concrete boat in freezing conditions, of course).

Can anyone authoratively answer that?

John



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Is it true that his wife said, should he sell Touchstone and fit out another ferro, that it would be called "Tombstone"?

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