Pros and cons of steel boats

[sierragolf]

I'm in the market for a new boat - probably something around 30 foot,
and I was pondering the possibilities of getting a Dutch steel-built
yacht. However, I've never had a steel boat before. Can anyone advise
me of the pros and cons of living with a steel boat? Is the maintenance
a problem? How much of a problem is rust?

Hope these aren't daft questions - I've had a 40+ year old GRP sloop up
to now, which has been quite user friendly, despite the age, but have
no experience of steel boats- hence the questions.

Cheers

SG

 

[essexboy]

Is that "New, New" or just new to you ?

 

[sierragolf]

Ha Ha - new would be nice, but just new to me I'm afraid. It'll probably be mid 70s to early 1980s at a guess. Obviously I'd get a survey, but it's the ongoing maintenance issues that I need to know about.

 

[PCUK]

If it's been epoxy coated from new and has been looked after, then no problem.
If it has had a 'tradtitional' paint job, avoid like the plague!
Pros:-
No osmosis,
Will withstand fire at sea,
Will withstand grounding on rocks,
WIll come off best in any collision with GRP.

Cons:-
Magentic mines,
Needs repainting every twenty years.
Scratches will need touching up the same as the car.

 

[gtuson]

Rust on outside not necessarily big problem. Can be grit blasted and repainted and with modern paints will be fine for many years..Its rust on the iside which is more of a problem because often hard to see in every nook and cranny and thenn hard to really get at to treat properly. We have steel boat which we stripped and had blasted inside and out and have had no problems in five years except small damage. Advantages are that very strong and easy to make look smart again - we repainted ours in half a day and was like new - cant really do that with GRP. So - make sure you get very thorough look at all the insides before buying....Also getting welding done is not necessarily a big or expensive deal....

 

[Wansworth]

Havinf had a steel boat I would in the size your looking at stay with grp.Unless its properly painted its one long round with the paint brush,it has to be properly insulated,decks are hot in the summer,all ways odd problems with stray currents and changeing anodes etc,Watch out for boats with filler,best will be chine construction,perfect round hulls smell of filler,They fetch a lower price to buy but when you sell ....

 

[nedmin]

Had steel boats for over 25yrs, 3 different ones, if I was buying a 2nd hand one the first place to look is the bilges, if they are rusty and tatty and have water in them ,look somewhere else, if the bilges are good it gives a clue to the rest of the boat.the maintenance is no more than a gps, if you lose a bit of paint stick a piece of pvc tape on it till you have time to fix,the best part is that they are so solid, you can walk from one side to the other and they dont move,if your waiting stationary and its windy they just hold the position, if I can be of any further help please contact.

 

[oakum]

Re: Pros and cons of steel boats re:mogy

Nothing up with filler if it's been applied to fair the boat, most steel superyachts power and motor are faired (with filler) it's the treatment of steel under that counts. Admittedly if rust is bleeding thru' there's something that needs looking at, but if it's been treated properly then application of filler is not a problem otherwise a steel boat always looks --- well like steel. I've got a round bilge steel boat that people think is GRP or very well kept wood but I had it filled and faired after shotblasting, coating with correct paints and she looks the biz. The inside i've painted with thick epoxy with few problems.

 

[snooks]

Steel boats

Best advert I've seen for a steel yacht was in Cherbourg...

If it was GRP you wouldn't have known anything about it!

 

[mireland]

4mm or 5mm steel takes a fair bit of rust to cause serious problems! Agree with advice about the inside bilges being the place to look. Lets be honest though GRP also has its problems - osmosis ain't pretty. All boats need on going and scrupulous maintaining. Steel is strong and very practical. If you take a knock repair is cheap and easy. Doom mongers hype up problems with steel such as condensation yet my steel boat is the driest I have been on. I reckon it is all down to the boat. Use your eyes and trust your instinct. Don't be scared of steel.

 

[Ships_Cat]

Agree with what most of the others have said. However, if looking at a boat around 30 foot it will be a very heavy boat compared to one built of any other materials (except for ferrocement).

With modern coatings and proper build a smodern teel boat will have easier maintenance than a frp boat, but a boat of the age you mention will likely not have that advantage. The bilges and interior where water/condensation may have collected are the places to look, plus the interiors of tanks if built in in steel.

John

 

[Sea Devil]

Agree with John for once! I had a 40 ft steel ketch - great paint job on the outside rusty as hell in places I could not reach on the inside.. Slow as hell cos it was so heavy and because of the hull form.
Hove to in really strong winds F10 ish - brilliant.
Not mine, but I watched one bounce over a coral reef on its side and took the owner to a beach 80 miles from the reef where he recovered his boat with just a few scratches on the hull!
Every time I got into port after having salt water washing across the deck I would spend ages on maintenance - getting rid of the rust!
I sailed her back from the Canaries instead of taking her across the Atlantic - sold her and got a fibreglass boat and never regretted it.
Michael

 

[Eightball]

hi well steel is very simple to fix cut out crap weld new bit in ive had all types and the one ive got now is 67 years old ive owned it twice its a great boat 11 tons of it 40 ft top speed ive had is 13 ktns chine built in 1939 ive never had any problems with it i wash her down and touch her surface rust up when it gets any up a s p hull is orig same as day she was built it was raced for 30 years in same family done sidney to hobart and round the world and still going strong and steady as a rock in any weather so go for it cant see you can go wrong dave if you want to see her go to frapper site dave britton 123 photos

 

[Benbow]

Re: Steel boats

And its not just the strength in the event of a catastrophic collision or hitting a reef. A steel boat gives you the ability to mix it with the big boys at the fish dock or to go into a sea lock with a trawler whose idea of a fender is a truck tyre attached by a vicious piece of rusty wire cable.

Personally, I would not go for steel below 40’ because of the drawbacks listed above. But a small steel boat is an immensely strong structure.

 

[mchinery]

Re: Steel boats

Checking the bilge is a must on a steel boat and is a good indication if there may be problems. I would agree that you would get a good strong boat and I think the maintainance on a steel vessel is much the same as any other (well maybe not ferro!). The other good thing about steel is that it does not matter where in the world you find yourself you will always be able to find someone to fix this great material.

 

[homa]

Another big advantage of steel is that you will be seen very well on radar.
I have been stuck mid channel in thick fog and hearing ships passing. I called a couple up with my position and both reported seeing me on radar at over 8 miles which was very reasuring.

 

[sierragolf]

Thanks for the input everyone. The sort of boat I'm looking at is around 4.6 tonnes, including 1.5 tonnes of ballast. Is that particularly heavy for a 30 footer? It's a Van de Stadt design, so the pedigree should be pretty sound and I quite like the idea of being visible on radar a long way off (been there, done the North Sea in fog thingy - definitely not fun).

The alternative would be to get something in GRP, probably French, of a similar age, but I'm wary of the possibility of expensive osmosis treatment on what would be a pretty elderly GRP structure.

Anyway - thanks again for the input.

SG

 

[DeeGee]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the input everyone. The sort of boat I'm looking at is around 4.6 tonnes, including 1.5 tonnes of ballast. Is that particularly heavy for a 30 footer? It's a Van de Stadt design, so the pedigree should be pretty sound and I quite like the idea of being visible on radar a long way off (been there, done the North Sea in fog thingy - definitely not fun).

The alternative would be to get something in GRP, probably French, of a similar age, but I'm wary of the possibility of expensive osmosis treatment on what would be a pretty elderly GRP structure.

Anyway - thanks again for the input.

SG

[/ QUOTE ]You wouldn't have to pay for treatment if it didn't have osmosis. It is reasonably easily checked out ashore by a surveyor with his little detector thingy. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[WigglyWeenus]

Had steel boats for over 25yrs, 3 different ones, if I was buying a 2nd hand one the first place to look is the bilges, if they are rusty and tatty and have water in them ,look somewhere else, if the bilges are good it gives a clue to the rest of the boat.the maintenance is no more than a gps, if you lose a bit of paint stick a piece of pvc tape on it till you have time to fix,the best part is that they are so solid, you can walk from one side to the other and they dont move,if your waiting stationary and its windy they just hold the position, if I can be of any further help please contact.

Thoughts on the Roberts design?

 

[dom]

Thoughts on the Roberts design?

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