Steel boat as a long-term liveaboard (in a warm(er) climate).

[Mr Cassandra]

I'm very happy to live and let live, and I might just stop replying as anyone who reads this thread from now on will realise that Brent's advise is worth what they have paid for it.


Exactly, don't stop replying, in fact, attach him as hard as you like, that's what makes things interesting , just please dont threaten to close threads down because you disagree with someone .

 

[Kelpie]

just please dont threaten to close threads down because you disagree with someone .

The fact that you think this is what is happening suggests that you haven't really read what John Morris has been saying.

 

[Robin]

The fact that you think this is what is happening suggests that you haven't really read what John Morris has been saying.

Nor even read or at least comprehended the entire thread :disgust:

 

[Mr Cassandra]

The fact that you think this is what is happening suggests that you haven't really read what John Morris has been saying.

If you and i disagree fair enough we don`t say something like this below.



It may be better (as the discussion is getting no where) for this thread to remain visible but to be locked. I’ll discuss it with my fellow mods..
Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...-warm(er)-climate)/page24#z557ToErFRWYwqGr.99

 

[Mr Cassandra]

Nor even read or at least comprehended the entire thread :disgust:

Just keep moaning about everything as you usually do.

 

[Kelpie]

If you and i disagree fair enough we don`t say something like this below.



It may be better (as the discussion is getting no where) for this thread to remain visible but to be locked. I’ll discuss it with my fellow mods..
Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...-warm(er)-climate)/page24#z557ToErFRWYwqGr.99

Staying, quite accurately IMO, that the thread is not going anywhere isn't the same as saying that you disagree with someone.

 

[Mr Cassandra]

Staying, quite accurately IMO, that the thread is not going anywhere isn't the same as saying that you disagree with someone.

Brent, you undertook to stop talking about ‘my boats’ and ‘my designs’ as (despite your protestations that you don’t need the money) it is effectively advertising your business. The thread (and all your posts on the subject) are in danger of being removed from public view if you persist. (And for the sake of openness, I am one of the moderators of these forums.)
Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...-warm(er)-climate)/page24#F0MthCRbVT8XzT74.99

 

[john_morris_uk]

Its interesting that this comment was on another forum. I've never bothered to go looking for what other people say about him but I was struck by how my own conclusions after reading what he has written are remarkably similar to the description in the quote below.

He claims he's lived aboard most of his life and crossed the Pacific multiple times. He gives example of record runs to exotic destinations on his boat, and uses all the achievement as proof of his sailing skills and boat design superiority.

People who know him well have told a different story. He has lived on the dole, with his sister in her flat for most of his adult life, not aboard his boat.

Most importantly apart from the occasional coastal cruise in sheltered waters he has never been offshore in any of his own designs. His own 31 footer has certainly never been out of Canadian waters despite his claims of something like 8 Pacific crossings in it.

He appears to have had a trip to NZ when he was in his early 20's in a ferro-cement "Pipe dream" . The boat apparently sank after being washed onto a reef. Since that aborted effort Brent has apparently been reluctant to go offshore again on any boat. So he's made up a fantasy life were he's an expert engineer, yacht designer and daring explorer.

Most of what he posts is one part truth and nine parts fiction. He does manage to mislead a lot of people unless they read forums like this.

I don't know what the truth is, but if it was me being described, and it was all lies I'd be pretty keen to set the record straight. I've got some sailing contacts in many parts of the world. If Brent would care to share where he is right now I can make enquiries and see if someone I know can call and say hello and report back?

I'd also be interested to see some copies of the plans for one of his boats. This is a genuine request and sharing the outline drawings shouldn't be considered advertising - especially when I've asked to see them. Obviously it wouldn't be right to publish the detailed drawings in a public place, but the basic drawings would suffice for us to see the idea...

 

[Robin]

Just keep moaning about everything as you usually do.

YOU, sir, are the one, not me, that is doing the moaning. I put BS on 'ignore' a long time back you might care to say hello to him there.

 

[rotrax]

Its interesting that this comment was on another forum. I've never bothered to go looking for what other people say about him but I was struck by how my own conclusions after reading what he has written are remarkably similar to the description in the quote below.
I don't know what the truth is, but if it was me being described, and it was all lies I'd be pretty keen to set the record straight. I've got some sailing contacts in many parts of the world. If Brent would care to share where he is right now I can make enquiries and see if someone I know can call and say hello and report back?

I'd also be interested to see some copies of the plans for one of his boats. This is a genuine request and sharing the outline drawings shouldn't be considered advertising - especially when I've asked to see them. Obviously it wouldn't be right to publish the detailed drawings in a public place, but the basic drawings would suffice for us to see the idea...

Very interesting.

I suspect somewhere between BS's posts and what you discovered on the other forum lies the truth.

I would have been a world Mororcycle Racing Champion if all the other riders had not been faster than me........................

Nothing wrong with dreaming. Telling porkies is another matter!

 

[Brent Swain]

29 feet in 1976. All included.No engine; for the first 3 years, including a trip to Tahiti and back
This boat.
View attachment 67263

Second trip to the S Pacific. My last boat ,my second boat , and my first steel boat.

 

[Brent Swain]

Hauled out in Vavau, Tonga ,my current boat , prior to a non stop to BC.

 

[GHA]

Your statement that home built steel boats are better than commercially built ones from a functional,practical standpoint will not stand scrutiny. Some, like yours, may. My mate Errols 60 footer will. But not ALL.
. ......Most boats there are steel, and, apart from Errols, all have rust streaks..............

Here I would say he's closer to the mark than you, within many constraints it will often stand scrutiny. Factory built will very likely have deck fittings bolted on, some wood attached outside and not have an interior easy to remove to get at the inside of the hull. 3 major minus points for a long and happy steel boat life. Not necessary all done by a home build but more likely than a factory build. The real world isn't a black and white place.


The rust streaks have been talked about before, a little bit of maintenance now and again needs to happen with steel or that's what will happen sooner or later. Just the way it is.

 

[Brent Swain]

On my first boat , French Polynesia, Moorea.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Second trip to the S Pacific. My last boat ,my second boat , and my first steel boat.

View attachment 68870
Hauled out in Vavau, Tonga ,my current boat , prior to a non stop to BC.

Sorry, old faded pictures of people who are unrecognisable prove nothing. (Neither do photos of passport stamps from a voyage long ago.)

The evidence against your claims is in your belligerence and your fanatical claims about compasses, and navigation.

I see that there are a fair few Naval Architects who have asked a few questions of you and your designs and you've fallen out with them too.

View attachment 68871
On my first boat , French Polynesia, Moorea.

 

[Brent Swain]

Here I would say he's closer to the mark than you, within many constraints it will often stand scrutiny. Factory built will very likely have deck fittings bolted on, some wood attached outside and not have an interior easy to remove to get at the inside of the hull. 3 major minus points for a long and happy steel boat life. Not necessary all done by a home build but more likely than a factory build. The real world isn't a black and white place.


The rust streaks have been talked about before, a little bit of maintenance now and again needs to happen with steel or that's what will happen sooner or later. Just the way it is.

I just talked to a friend yesterday,who tried to save a commercially built (Folkes) boat. Zero paint inside. Wherever he tried to weld, he found the steel just beyond the patch, was super thin.The epoxy on the outside was fine.
Had it been properly, heavily epoxied inside, the boat could have cruised on for many more decades. Sad to see boat after boat lost that way, when a bit of epoxy and a few days work, could have let the boat cruise on, with no such problems for decades longer.No weld inside ,and chine welds outside ground flush, leaving the thickness of a beer can holding things together.
Given how little of the total expense of building a boat this involves, it is incomprehensible to have such neglect in the building proccess.
However, with tight budgets, getting the outside looking good, and getting her out the door quickly is the main, short term goal ,for commercially built boats.Anything different could mean quick bankruptcy.
That is the rule rather than the exception for commercially produced sailboats around here .
The most important paint you can put on a steel boat is inside .Any problems on outside paint can be easily dealt with .Not so easy inside.
Eric Hiscock's steel boat was another example. Hard to a imagine anything as abysmally stupid as a layer of one inch plywood, then teak overlay, on a steel deck. A recipe for a maintenance and rust time bomb. I saw her on a grid in Auckland. Only tiny bolt on zincs, for a huge boat. Wood anywhere on the outside of a steel boat is a maintenance time bomb.
Steel boats can be very low maintenance, only if you get these points right. Get them wrong ,and you have a maintenance night mare. It is not the material's fault, it is what you do with it.

 

[Brent Swain]

Sorry, old faded pictures of people who are unrecognisable prove nothing. (Neither do photos of passport stamps from a voyage long ago.)

The evidence against your claims is in your belligerence and your fanatical claims about compasses, and navigation.

I see that there are a fair few Naval Architects who have asked a few questions of you and your designs and you've fallen out with them too.

Are you referring to Bob Perry, who has a zero hands on, steel boat building, owning ,maintaining, living aboard , and offshore cruising experience, who charges $175 an hour for advice on things he has never done, and who has claimed to have designed the "Amazon", a Graham Shannon design?
Or the critics on one sight, only one of whom has ever built a steel boat, and has only limited coastal ,short term cruising experience in one?
Or the "engineer" on that site who claimed that which has not broken in 40 years just might break in the first 4 hours?
or the "Designer"who claimed that none of my boats exist ,outside my imagination?
You say passports , photos and customs clearance lie?
What kind of evidence do you want? The kind you have presented?
DONE!

 

[Brent Swain]

My current boat, in Hilo Hawaii , 2,000.

 

[Brent Swain]

Here I would say he's closer to the mark than you, within many constraints it will often stand scrutiny. Factory built will very likely have deck fittings bolted on, some wood attached outside and not have an interior easy to remove to get at the inside of the hull. 3 major minus points for a long and happy steel boat life. Not necessary all done by a home build but more likely than a factory build. The real world isn't a black and white place.


The rust streaks have been talked about before, a little bit of maintenance now and again needs to happen with steel or that's what will happen sooner or later. Just the way it is.

Don't bolt anything down which can be welded down.There is no better bedding compound than weld. Bolting gives up one huge advantage of steel construction.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Are you referring to Bob Perry, who has a zero hands on, steel boat building, owning ,maintaining, living aboard , and offshore cruising experience, who charges $175 an hour for advice on things he has never done, and who has claimed to have designed the "Amazon", a Graham Shannon design?
Or the critics on one sight, only one of whom has ever built a steel boat, and has only limited coastal ,short term cruising experience in one?
Or the "engineer" on that site who claimed that which has not broken in 40 years just might break in the first 4 hours?
or the "Designer"who claimed that none of my boats exist ,outside my imagination?
You say passports , photos and customs clearance lie?
What kind of evidence do you want? The kind you have presented?
DONE!

I’m not suggested passports lie. But you haven’t shown passports with stamps for all these crossings over forty years you claim I’ve offered some opinions and can point you to where REAL naval architects have asked questions about design strengths and calculations for your designs.