Considering a steel boat 😱

[Sea Change]

Madness, I know.
If looking at a steel boat, what are the pertinent questions to ask?
- plating thickness when new
- coatings used
- insulation
- previous ultrasound survey- is this a routine thing?
- anything else?

What's the expected lifespan of a steel yacht?

There's a big bit of me screaming 'no!!!!' but at the same time I know hundreds of people do successfully cruise in steel boats. And I used to drive a big old steel landing craft for work, which thrived on a diet of neglect, abuse, and daily groundings.

 

[geem]

Dont do it! We have several sets of friends who went through the steel boat cruising period. They all moved on to GRP. Maintenance nightmare. If you have to weld a plate on the hull, you have to strip the interior or the welding sets the interior alight. If the hull is insulated, you have to scrape back insulation then replace it all afterwards.

 

[NormanS]

The advantage of using steel is that it's a relatively cheap, and given the appropriate skill, an easy way to build a boat. After the hull is built, steel is a disadvantage in every way. I speak as one who built a steel yacht many years ago.

 

[Sandro]

Workboats are (or were?) steel.
My nefew has a steel 13 m double ender for decades and is happy with.

 

[scozzy]

Put down whatever you are drinking....OR keep drinking it till the feeling passes

 

[PCUK]

Steel boats are great. They can withstand grounding on rocks. Ensure the boat was epoxy coated inside and out from new. Ensure the surveyor ultra sonically tests the hull thickness overall. Ignore the nonsense from people who have never owned steel. Maintenance is minimal if dings an scratches are dealt with promptly. Owned my previous 12 metre steel flybridge for 28 years.

 

[veshengro]

I had a Robert Tucker design steel Gaffer hull built 26 years ago, and as I no longer have the specs finer details are a bit hazy. 4mm plate with 6 mm for her hollow keel sides and bottom I recall. I ballasted her with iron sash window weights and concrete mix. Because I was there as she was built, each night when welding had finished I spent the night hours painting her as she was built starting with the interior. 3 coats of two pack epoxy paint, each a different colour so that I could see any spots missed. She was insulated with with loft insulation, the pink fibre stuff and lined with marine ply.
Exterior was also 2 pack epoxy and the usual anti foul paint . I bought a roll of galvanised 6 strand wire and rigged her myself. Her mast, boom and Gaff I bought from a Mast Maker based in Bristol. She was 35 feet overall and drew nearly 6 feet. Fully laden nearly 12 tons, but that was for Ocean crossings so water, stores, diesel etc:

My reasoning. She was to be my permanent home, no home ashore. Not being a fibre glass whizz I wanted to be able to repair her myself if necessary. ( amateur welding capability) Always single handed I just wanted basic comforts and sea going ability, no interest in modern style or wizardry. Cheap, as I did much of the labour, painting, rigging etc: The rigging wire I bought from a Commercial Lifting company based in Kent and even with the cost of galvanised Bottle Screws the whole project came to less than one fifth of a Professional stainless rig by someone ashore.

She went to windward in light airs like a milk crate, 4 or 5 points off the wind at best, but in a stiff breeze she sailed well to windward. On a run or reach with full main and Tops'l she sailed very well indeed. I took some real batterings from weather in the 9 years I owned her. Cape Spartivento off the Italian Coast being a memorable 12 hours on one occasion. I eventually managed to stuff her on a Bahamas Reef in what turned out to be the beginnings of a Tropical Revolving storm, she was lost and I was plucked off by the US Coast Guard.

After 9 years I found no rust or signs of damp/condensation inside. There was continual small maintenance of paint on deck, cleats and fair leads where chafe stripped the paint etc: The little wood stove kept her warm and cosy in a few winters spent living aboard in the West Country and a freezing winter on the buoys at West Mersea. She was surprisingly cool below in the Med and Caribbean but no shoes on deck was definitely painful in those same areas..

No regrets about my decision for a steel boat at build or afterwards. Her replacement was a Nicholson 32 which I admit was a bit eye opening when I first sailed her!!! Mule and racehorse thoughts come to mind, but I'm fond of Mules anyway..

 

[rogerthebodger]

I have a steel 50 ft sailboat I purchased the boat and trucked it close to home in 2005 and launched it mid 2009

The trick is to grit blast (not sand) then paint with 2-part epoxy inside and outside. I used epoxy tar below the waterline

Lots or pics on the web as below

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152956403@N05/albums/72157686618511045/

 

[rotrax]

Had eight years with a 1986 steel Hartley 32 in Wellington, NZ.

Steel boats generally rust from the inside. Inside protective coatings need to be very good from build, rigorously maintained and quickly refinished if failing or damaged.

Most issues we had with our home built Hartley were that the builder made two 'Rookie' mistakes. He fitted the acrylic windows and ports inside the hull, leaving a 4mm steel edge that corroded due to seawater and rainwater collecting in the lower edge. The other was that the stantions were welded direct to the deck. Corrosion occured here due to dissimilar metals/galvanic action.

Once we attended to these issues and a bit of internal finish failure she became a nice boat that needed little maintenance.

ALL boats require maintenance, the amount needed is dependant on initial condition. Buy the right steel boat after a careful inspection and it should be OK. We only used our Hartley when in NZ, a maximum of 5 months each year. Two weeks on the hard covered all we needed to do, apart from 5 weeks on the hard when we replaced the windows. There was no significant outside corrosion until covid. We were unable to get to her for over two years. The anodes became used up and we had a hole in the bulb keel and a small hole in the steel rudder that needed the welder to sort out. Not very expensive - steel is very easy to repair with simple welding techniques.

Dont be frightened, if you like the boat, go for it.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

My mate bought a steel boat we called it BONG because that's the sound it made when he hit something.

 

[dunedin]

I have a steel 50 ft sailboat I purchased the boat and trucked it close to home in 2005 and launched it mid 2009

The trick is to grit blast (not sand) then paint with 2-part epoxy inside and outside. I used epoxy tar below the waterline

Lots or pics on the web as below

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152956403@N05/albums/72157686618511045/

Why the 4 year gap between trucking it and launching it? Hopefully not because it needed so much work done to get seaworthy?

 

[rogerthebodger]

Why the 4 year gap between trucking it and launching it? Hopefully not because it needed so much work done to get seaworthy?

W trucked a just the hull from Cape Town to Johannesburg for some redesign work to suit me and then fitting out in Johannesburg.

Clearly just the hull and superstructure were not live able, and it was the fitting out to make it live able that took 4 years

The boat had never been launched it had no mast or operating engine or prop shaft and prop fitted

Boat sa loaded in Cape Town ready for transport to JHB 1400 Km away

https://flic.kr/p/WM4xgv

Boat as loaded after fitting out ready for transport to launching site 600 Km away

https://flic.kr/p/WVjvQw

Boat being launched

https://flic.kr/p/WopmeY

You clearly have no idea how much work it takes to fit out a boat the size of mine and the complexity of the fitting out process including all the wiring, plumbing, woodwork and engineering I did a lot myself with non-skilled workers.

Have a look at the pics showing the fitting out work in the links above

 

[Sea Change]

Workboats are (or were?) steel.
My nefew has a steel 13 m double ender for decades and is happy with.

I think it's one of these things that works well at larger scales but not so well in miniature. I'm waiting to hear about the plate thickness... both new and current. Hopefully they're the same number

 

[boatmike]

The RN seem to do quite well with them! But seriously there is nothing wrong with steel as a building material and to the previous poster who named his boat BONG! I would say its better than the sickening CRUNCH! when you hit something with a plastic boat....... While you do have to be sure you don't have a bad corrosion problem (and walk away if it does) a properly constructed and protected steel boat will give you years of trouble free service and they don't suffer osmosis! Don't be put off but DO get a proper survey from an experienced surveyor, and yes an ultrasonic survey is essential to ensure that there are no hidden problems that have not been hidden by paint. A good tip is find a surveyor used to examining narrow boats for canal work. Not too many of them made of plastic! Although salt water is more corrosive than fresh, the problems are basically the same. Either way keep a level head and you could find a bargain as many AWB owners are prejudiced and wouldn't touch one. Do be careful though as others have intimated, steel is a material sometimes chosen by amateur builders as a cheap alternative and sometimes the welding is less than professional. Not all amateur builds are bad though but ideally look for one constructed in a professional yard........

 

[servus]

I think it's one of these things that works well at larger scales but not so well in miniature. I'm waiting to hear about the plate thickness... both new and current. Hopefully they're the same number

Hi Sea Change,

My boat:
Built 1989 in Holland, Koopmans design, steel hull and deck, Cockpit and very low and short cabin top marine ply and epoxy, Loa: 12m.
Plate thicknesses: deck 3mm, topsides 4mm, under the waterline 5mm.
There are a couple in the market at the moment due to the slow market. Search Hutting 40 used boats for sale.

I would buy the same again.

Cheers, G.

 

[dunedin]

….

You clearly have no idea how much work it takes to fit out a boat the size of mine and the complexity of the fitting out process including all the wiring, plumbing, woodwork and engineering I did a lot myself with non-skilled workers.

…

You didn’t say you had boat an unfinished boat, hence why I asked the question.

But each to their own - I wouldn’t want to lose 4 years working on a boat as opposed to sailing it

 

[BobnLesley]

Steel boats are great. They can withstand grounding on rocks. Alternatively, use some of that additional free time a GRP one offers to improve your navigation
Ensure the boat was epoxy coated inside and out from new. As others have mentioned too; the problem is that most folks are buying secondhand
Ignore the nonsense... Maintenance is minimal if dings an scratches are dealt with promptly. The only two steel boats we came across during our years of cruising which constantly remained looking 'nice' had crews which dedicated - without fail! - at least half a day each week to sanding/grinding/touching-up, dings and scratches (lots of navigational study time) to those dings and scratches; only after that, did they start on the tasks that the rest of us had too.

 

[veshengro]

Just out of interest, my Gaff Cutter took 11 months from the first welds to sea trials. But I was retired so spent a lot of time either labouring for the builder, the Ship Wright who did the interior woodwork or the Electrician who did the wiring and instrument fitting. Nasa depth, Furuno, GPS and a VHF. No sailing instruments or plotters etc: so it didn't take him long. The rigging I cut to length and spliced as soon as I got the mast up and secured standing temporarily with cheap blue Polyprop rope. There was few weeks delay waiting for the 30hp Beta to arrive, but not Beta's fault. Still a lot of work though that takes time.

 

[rogerthebodger]

Just out of interest, my Gaff Cutter took 11 months from the first welds to sea trials. But I was retired so spent a lot of time either labouring for the builder, the Ship Wright who did the interior woodwork or the Electrician who did the wiring and instrument fitting. Nasa depth, Furuno, GPS and a VHF. No sailing instruments or plotters etc: so it didn't take him long. The rigging I cut to length and spliced as soon as I got the mast up and secured standing temporarily with cheap blue Polyprop rope. There was few weeks delay waiting for the 30hp Beta to arrive, but not Beta's fault. Still a lot of work though that takes time.

When I fitted out my boat, I was running a computer software design company when I was the main programmer so time on my boat was limited to after work and weekends.

I also did engineering mods to windows hatches as well as all the stainless work I made myself or with the help of others when I did not have the time

 

[Stemar]

My mate bought a steel boat we called it BONG because that's the sound it made when he hit something.

Well, that's an awful lot better than CRUNCH