Steel Yachts

[Mino]

I agree with Chinita and his recommendations. My boat is a Van de Stadt 34.Well built from day 1, she is 22 years old and even in steel, really has beautiful lines. She's a cruiser & weighs abit but even so she was running at 7.5 knots on Thursday in a stiff southerly. quite exhilerating.
She just underwent a full survey in June including a full ultrasonic test of hull integrity and received a good report. Yes there was some internal corrosion but I was aware of it and its been fully sorted. Externally, after the survey, I had her shotblasted & epoxy coated with a two pack on top then antifouled to the boot topping. The topsides were also two packed.Sure you get the occassional rust spots (I find them on the toe rail where people climbing over can cause some cosmetic damage, but it is just that, I leave this sort of thing until i can spend a reasonable day, treating, cleaning, priming & finishing etc, so I dont waste paints etc. She will spend many years yet sailing before she is ready for the breakers. I love her - dont be put off by the word "steel". I still get comments on her lines from other club members & one in particular has put his name down as a marker to buy her if & when I decide to sell

She sounds great. Any chance of posting some pics? I agree; I've spotted some very pretty steel yachts myself, motor and sail. What appeals to me is that many people have stated that steel yachts feel more like ships, and that the solidity is very reassuring.

 

[castlevar]

mino

Do You Want to buy a sailing boat or a motor boat ? you are posting on motor boats as well

 

[Grehan]

Mrs Skipper and I spent 2 weeks lying on our backs in the blistering heat in a Fuengirola boatyard scraping and epoxy filling a friend's steel motor cruiser's underside. Horrible pitted corrosion - his fault for neglect over (just) a couple of years but put us off steel for good! 'Plastic' is a good deal forgiving . .

 

[TQA]

I went cruising for 7 years in the 90s and having a small budget bought a 25 year old steel boat on the beach in Fishguard for 15k.

Yes I had to keep chipping, applying OSPHO and painting some bits and did have a small amount of plate welded in as a precaution when I hauled down in Venuzuela. Less than a days work for the welder.

But when I had repeated close whale encounters on the Transatlantic and my crew were getting nervous I reminded them that the whale will get a headache if he hits us and we are not likely to be dented. I also hit something big and solid one night which more or less stopped the boat dead. The front of the keel, a 2 inch tube was flattened but no other damage. I also sailed in to a reef [ note to self DO NOT RELY ON old admiralty charts in the Turks and Caicos ] with only scratches.

Also with the deck and chain plates etc all being welded up there were NO DECK LEAKS.

So I was happy with my choice of a RYTON 38 not the prettiest boat in the world but a strong one, I am pretty sure that night impact would have damaged a GRP or wood boat as we were doing 7 knots and stopped dead.

I sold her after 7 years for 12k with worn out sails but the hull and deck was still sound.

 

[Mino]

Do You Want to buy a sailing boat or a motor boat ? you are posting on motor boats as well

Both.

 

[KellysEye]

One thing I forgot to mention is that if you do get a bit of corrosion the rust killers don't really work, by which I mean the rust will come back. The only solution is to grind back to bare steel. A Dremel does the job.

 

[AndrewB]

One thing I forgot to mention is that if you do get a bit of corrosion the rust killers don't really work, by which I mean the rust will come back. The only solution is to grind back to bare steel. A Dremel does the job.

I agree with this but with reservations. Grinding inevitably removes a lot of good metal as well as bad. In places where I have had repeated problems (steel yacht now 27 years old) eventually I have gone right through, and needed a welded patch. Moreover, some corners specially inside defy grinding. It depends how well the yacht was designed with long-term maintenance in mind.

I now don't grind. Blasting is a much better long-term solution, but incredibly messy and expensive. To blast a significant area means that all non-steel fittings must be removed and refitted. The cost of this is prohibitively expensive. For example, 10 years ago I was quoted £14,000 to blast just the exterior deck of my yacht: just £800 of that was the cost of blasting, the rest was removal and replacement of all deck fittings and re-priming (not painting).

So chemical rust killers are now what I mainly use. I like Fertan. Like everything, its a matter of technique - I've got better with practice. At present I reckon to get about three years from a treated, repainted surface, but as the yacht gets older, the period is getting shorter. Steel yachts do have a finite life.

 

[owen-cox]

I am very happy with mine I changed the hull colour to blue so the rust isnt quite so obvious and repainted the entire boat last winter. She has lasted well this year and as I am fully cured of looking for a superyacht finish after 20 years working in the yachting industry I am very happy with the boat I have. you can see her on my website www.steelyacht.co.uk I can assure you (though I am not going to tell you what I paid for her) that there is absolutely no way I could have bought a heavily built GRP boat with the gear that there was on mine. I bought mine 250 miles from home port so had to deliver her in some pretty rough weather and I was extremely happy to sleep on board without any noise or movement while much larger plastic boats were bouncing round like a cork. Ok steel needs a bit of work but I have only touched up once this season and she still looks good.

 

[peatbongo]

Hi, I am looking at a steel Trintel 27 from 1960 . She looks in fine condition from the photos, I should view her next week. Should I be on the lookout for anything ?
I

 

[Jeva]

I firmly believe that the original build quality reflects in the condition of the boat years on. If it was done right at build you wont have a problem. We've had our steel trawler for 10 years and, as stated by others on this post, maintenance comes down to about 2 half days per year. Like any other build material, stay on top of the job and it doesn't become a problem.

 

[TQA]

Hi, I am looking at a steel Trintel 27 from 1960 . She looks in fine condition from the photos, I should view her next week. Should I be on the lookout for anything ?
I

Very very few steel boats of that vintage are still sailing. I would poke a remote camera into every nook and cranny. If it passes that test I would pay for an ultrasound scan.

 

[Sybarite]

Had I the means of building a cruising yacht to my choice it would be built in Strongall, 3 times as thick as the aluminium used traditionally and able to take high intensity welding without risk of deformation. Also with its zinc silicate coating it is guaranteed not to be subject to electrolysis.

http://www.meta-chantier-naval.fr/web/notre-histoire/histoire-du-strongall/

At least two noted architects : the late Michel Joubert and Jean-Pierre Brouns specified it for their own boats.

The hulls are so rigid they do not need to be supplemented by bulkheads which opens up the layout possibilities.

 

[sailaboutvic]

who tho foot steps I can hear heading this way?
BS ?

 

[Brent Swain]

There are some great steel boat discussions on facebook (metal boat society, designing and building steel and aluminium yachts, etc.)Unlike some sites, they don't get trolled into uselessness, by people who don't have clue about the subject.,Anyone with decades of steel boat maintenance experience, would be happy to pass on info about the places where they wish they had used stainless, and other ways to build a steel boat for low maintenance. Wiser than paying someone $175 an hour for such advice ,someone who has never owned a steel boat, but has simply drawn pictures of them.

 

[Brent Swain]

Had I the means of building a cruising yacht to my choice it would be built in Strongall, 3 times as thick as the aluminium used traditionally and able to take high intensity welding without risk of deformation. Also with its zinc silicate coating it is guaranteed not to be subject to electrolysis.

http://www.meta-chantier-naval.fr/web/notre-histoire/histoire-du-strongall/

At least two noted architects : the late Michel Joubert and Jean-Pierre Brouns specified it for their own boats.

The hulls are so rigid they do not need to be supplemented by bulkheads which opens up the layout possibilities.

Thicker plate and less framing is a huge advantage in metal boats . Drastically reduces building time, by up to 90% for a hull and decks, gives a much fairer hull, and a much wider margin for corrosion. I have been building steel boats that way for decades .No problems .

 

[Brent Swain]

Hi, I am looking at a steel Trintel 27 from 1960 . She looks in fine condition from the photos, I should view her next week. Should I be on the lookout for anything ?
I

A good whack with a hammer and centre punch, in low, likely to have corrosion, spots ,will let you know if it is too thin there. If it doesn't go thru, you probably have plenty of steel thickness there.
Ultra sound steel thickness gauges are getting cheaper all the time, under $100 on line. Get one, and teach yourself how to use it.
No one with a steel boat in a yard would mind you practicing on their hull (unless they are trying to sell it.)
Post some pictures .

 

[Brent Swain]

I agree with Chinita and his recommendations. My boat is a Van de Stadt 34.Well built from day 1, she is 22 years old and even in steel, really has beautiful lines. She's a cruiser & weighs abit but even so she was running at 7.5 knots on Thursday in a stiff southerly. quite exhilerating.
She just underwent a full survey in June including a full ultrasonic test of hull integrity and received a good report. Yes there was some internal corrosion but I was aware of it and its been fully sorted. Externally, after the survey, I had her shotblasted & epoxy coated with a two pack on top then antifouled to the boot topping. The topsides were also two packed.Sure you get the occassional rust spots (I find them on the toe rail where people climbing over can cause some cosmetic damage, but it is just that, I leave this sort of thing until i can spend a reasonable day, treating, cleaning, priming & finishing etc, so I dont waste paints etc. She will spend many years yet sailing before she is ready for the breakers. I love her - dont be put off by the word "steel". I still get comments on her lines from other club members & one in particular has put his name down as a marker to buy her if & when I decide to sell

Friends rented a 5 Hp compressor to do some sandblasting on one of my 36 footers. I found my $20 siphon blaster worked just as well as the pressure pot they used.Renting a compressor for a day, and doing your own blasting, is much easier that other steel cleaning methods, and the paint lasts much longer than if you use other means of steel cleaning.

 

[Brent Swain]

We have a Dutch built round bilge steel ketch. I agree with the others you do get dings which need filing, epoxy primer and epoxy topcoat. Also you tend to get corrosion around deck fittings (holes), remove and do as above. Steel is obviously higher maintenance than GRP but if you go long distane cruising it's only a matter of time before you hit something or something hits you and you'll be glad you have a steel boat. We've been hit twice once by a heavy pirogue at speed and once when we weren't around to see what hit us.

The main thing is to keep water out of the boat and if you do get water inside wash the bilge with fresh water and dry. Stainless capping on the bulwarks and stainless round the fairleads are a must. And as mentioned teak decks are a nono.

The only thing I don't agree with is that there are design limitations because steel is flat plate. It cheaper to build flat (hard chine) but there are many very pretty round bilge steel boats, ours is one example. Most people think she is GRP and remain sceptical until they tap her.

I notice that the latest stock plastic boats like Jeaneau , Beneteau etc. have slab sided topsides , and chines ,just like the single chine steel boats they used to call" ugly."
Ironic! What was "Ugly" not so long ago, becomes "stylish"today. Sad, when you think how much time and money metal boat builders have wasted trying to make topsides round, now that flat topsides with very little flare between sheer and hard chine, have been decreed "Beautiful and stylish!"
Doubts have been expressed on the ability to prevent those huge topside picture windows from leaking, given how much of the time they spend underwater.

 

[richardh10]

who tho foot steps I can hear heading this way?
BS ?

Took a while didn’t it!

 

[James448]

Hi I am new to the forum and I’m currently doing research about what sort of boat to go blue water crusing with. I am a welder by trade so I’m leaning towards steel or alluminum as supposed to grp. I’m very interested in a Van de Stadt designs preferably alluminum boat but I worry about corrosion Issues as my price range means I’m looking at boats that are 15+ years old. Any advice would be greatly appreciated