Steelboats

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newtothis said:
So, really, you're doing a bit of coastal marina hopping then. You could get a good GRP boat for that.
Good thing there are still some schmucks out there on the hamster wheel making those coffee shops and libraries available to you. Must be nice living off the back of other people's work.
And are we to assume you've got the tin can build time down to a "couple of weeks here, a couple of weeks there" now?
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Ones personal environmental impact is directly porportionate to how much money one spends. I earn and appreciate my reward for being so environmentally responsible, by living on so little money.
I don't do marinas, but stick to anchoring. I haven't paid to to tie my current boat up in a marina in over 34 years .Amazing, how many pay more on moorage ,than the total cost of full time cruising, without the need for marinas.

Arriving home from Tonga, I had a 36 to build in Winnipeg, for Ron Rietsema, a retired Manitoba Hydro worker.. The owner had a plasma cutter, torch, garage, back yard and some metal working skills. In 3 weeks we built the hull, decks ,cabin,wheelhouse cockpit, skeg rudder, skeg, lifelines, hand rails, cleats mooring bits, anchor winch , bow roller, thru hulls, tankage , engine mounts, stern tube and aperture, chocks, chain plates, mast fully detailed, windvane, basically, all the metal work, including a lot of stuff you have to go out and buy for a plastic hull . On my days off, and evenings, he had a biker do the welding, so after 3 weeks, most of the metal work was done and finished. The wood work, he thoroughly enjoyed.
That was my quota of work for that year.
 
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When I built the Tagish ( search Tagish) I was building for a farmer, who knew how to use tools. I would mark a plate out, throw it on the ground, and go on to mark the next one out. He would cut it, grind it, and hand it back to me, cut and ground.
I would tack it in place, then go on marking the next one for him to cut. The hull, decks, cabin, cockpit, wheelhouse, rudder , skeg, and keels for that boat took 40 hours of my time.
 
[ Having more disposable income, i built myself a Bruce Roberts designed double ender ( 281, i think ), as a one off in [/QUOTE]

Can you give us some idea of the cost of fibreglass materials for the double ender, hull and decks?
 
Brent Swain said:
When I built the Tagish ( search Tagish) I was building for a farmer, who knew how to use tools. I would mark a plate out, throw it on the ground, and go on to mark the next one out. He would cut it, grind it, and hand it back to me, cut and ground.
I would tack it in place, then go on marking the next one for him to cut. The hull, decks, cabin, cockpit, wheelhouse, rudder , skeg, and keels for that boat took 40 hours of my time.
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Found the blog at http://tagish.blogspot.com

Fascinating read. The boat appears to sail pretty well in the videos.
 
rotrax said:
You started it...………………………

Merry Christmas all-its only an hour away here in Wellington. The Grandchildren are really exited!

Expected to be around 24 degrees C tomorrow-it feels wrong somehow, but I wont complain.
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And being Christmas Day in Wellington, the wind should drop to a moderate Force 7.
 
rotrax said:
Pretty much-not as bad as I was led to believe. The weather patterns seem more predictable here, and the forecasts much more reliable.
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Wellington forecasts: windy, very windy, very windy and raining. Not hard to get it right most of the time.
 
Another little goldmine stashed away in here >

http://metalboatsurveyor.blogspot.com/

Including maybe not the top of the list benefit of steel but well up there, have a never leaking boat ever (assuming loads of work to get to that state and a little along the way to keep it there ;) )
No more rebedding.

http://metalboatsurveyor.blogspot.com/2014/05/interview-with-beth-leonard-and-evans.html

Most people guess we chose metal for strength, as we planned to go to the high latitudes. But in fact we picked it because we could make the decks absolutely leak proof. Our experience with fiberglass decks was that after two or so ocean crossings the boat had worked enough that at least a few of the fasteners through the deck would start leaking.
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Brent Swain said:
[ Having more disposable income, i built myself a Bruce Roberts designed double ender ( 281, i think ), as a one off in
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Can you give us some idea of the cost of fibreglass materials for the double ender, hull and decks?[/QUOTE]

Hi Brent, hoping you are keeping well. I built my Bruce Roberts in about 1982-1983, so i cannot remember exactly
how much the hull and deck cost me in materials. The hull and deck were glass reinforced plastic, the interior was marine ply bulkheads (18mm ). I loved the look of red cedar, but because it was a weak timber, i only used it to line the boat ceilings. To trim the bulkheads i used that beautiful yellow cedar. I had a force 10 diesel heater and a diesel stove. The mast and boom were aluminium, standing rigging 6mm stainless steel. Everything was bought brand new. The engine was a 9.9 hp Yamaha outboard. The only used item i bought was the 4000 pounds of lead for ballast. which i melted and poured in the keel cavity with water sprayed on the outside of the hull. The total cost for my finished boat, ( excluding my labour of course ), came to just over
10,000 Canadian dollars. I enjoyed my boat a lot, and when i made the decision to come back home to the U.K.
i advertised my boat for sale for 17.000 Canadian dollars. The first person who came to look at her asked if i could take him for a longish sea trial. I took him to Victoria, ( at that time we tied up outside the B.C. parliament
buildings for 2 days with no one asking for money or asking who we were, those were the days! ) From there we sailed to one of the small islands off the Washington State coast ( apologies i can't recall the name, but they used to have a ram roast every year). When we got back to my mooring in Squamish, the man went straight to his bank and came back with a cheque for the full amount i asked.
The little Flicka ( 21feet 9 inches loa ) in 1993 cost me 3,000 pounds for the hull, deck, the material for the temporary jig and 2,800 pounds in weight of scrap lead for the keel. The hull is made up of alternate layers of 450 gm matt and 800gm woven roving, giving a hull thickness of 1 inch from the bottom of the keel tapering to 1/2 inch at the gunwales. The boat is 25 years old now and it is still going strong. I have never done any very long distance voyages in her, but iv'e been out across the English channel in some fairly heavy weather. i can honestly say i have never been worried or apprehensive in those conditions aboard my lovely little yacht. I think that all sailors must feel the same on board their boats, the feeling of immense pride that their boat has looked after them. I love my little boat, you Brent must feel proud of your boat in the same way, and ALL sailors feel the same way too. We are all out there enjoying the same thing. All best wishes to you Brent and everyone on this forum.
 
newtothis said:
Wellington forecasts: windy, very windy, very windy and raining. Not hard to get it right most of the time.
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A bit like Scotland. A local told me once-and it proved to be true-" If you can see the hills, its going to rain. If you cant see the hills, its already raining! "

No wind today, but wet and warm. The Pohutukawa trees with their very red flowers look amazing this year.
 
rotrax said:
A bit like Scotland. A local told me once-and it proved to be true-" If you can see the hills, its going to rain. If you cant see the hills, its already raining! "

No wind today, but wet and warm. The Pohutukawa trees with their very red flowers look amazing this year.
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They say that on the mainland when looking at the IOWight!
 
rotrax said:
A bit like Scotland. A local told me once-and it proved to be true-" If you can see the hills, its going to rain. If you cant see the hills, its already raining! "

No wind today, but wet and warm. The Pohutukawa trees with their very red flowers look amazing this year.
Click to expand...

I once told a Scottish visitor "Welcome to BC what Scotland used to look like before the sheep .He said "Yes the islands with no sheep look a lot like BC ."
 
oz-1 said:
Can you give us some idea of the cost of fibreglass materials for the double ender, hull and decks?
Click to expand...

Hi Brent, hoping you are keeping well. I built my Bruce Roberts in about 1982-1983, so i cannot remember exactly
how much the hull and deck cost me in materials. The hull and deck were glass reinforced plastic, the interior was marine ply bulkheads (18mm ). I loved the look of red cedar, but because it was a weak timber, i only used it to line the boat ceilings. To trim the bulkheads i used that beautiful yellow cedar. I had a force 10 diesel heater and a diesel stove. The mast and boom were aluminium, standing rigging 6mm stainless steel. Everything was bought brand new. The engine was a 9.9 hp Yamaha outboard. The only used item i bought was the 4000 pounds of lead for ballast. which i melted and poured in the keel cavity with water sprayed on the outside of the hull. The total cost for my finished boat, ( excluding my labour of course ), came to just over
10,000 Canadian dollars. I enjoyed my boat a lot, and when i made the decision to come back home to the U.K.
i advertised my boat for sale for 17.000 Canadian dollars. The first person who came to look at her asked if i could take him for a longish sea trial. I took him to Victoria, ( at that time we tied up outside the B.C. parliament
buildings for 2 days with no one asking for money or asking who we were, those were the days! ) From there we sailed to one of the small islands off the Washington State coast ( apologies i can't recall the name, but they used to have a ram roast every year). When we got back to my mooring in Squamish, the man went straight to his bank and came back with a cheque for the full amount i asked.
The little Flicka ( 21feet 9 inches loa ) in 1993 cost me 3,000 pounds for the hull, deck, the material for the temporary jig and 2,800 pounds in weight of scrap lead for the keel. The hull is made up of alternate layers of 450 gm matt and 800gm woven roving, giving a hull thickness of 1 inch from the bottom of the keel tapering to 1/2 inch at the gunwales. The boat is 25 years old now and it is still going strong. I have never done any very long distance voyages in her, but iv'e been out across the English channel in some fairly heavy weather. i can honestly say i have never been worried or apprehensive in those conditions aboard my lovely little yacht. I think that all sailors must feel the same on board their boats, the feeling of immense pride that their boat has looked after them. I love my little boat, you Brent must feel proud of your boat in the same way, and ALL sailors feel the same way too. We are all out there enjoying the same thing. All best wishes to you Brent and everyone on this forum.[/QUOTE]ND COULD O

Yes , the good old days .The down side was we had to buy almost everything new, and could only dream of the huge amount of used gear in good condition for cheap or free, which we are swamped with today.
Friends built my 31 back then for under $10 K and the 36 cost $8K for hull and decks, keels rudder and skeg, including my time.. The 31 cost around $3500 for hull and decks . Now the basic steel for the 36 ft shell, is around $9K. Basic steel cost for hull and decks for a 36 back then were around $3500
I remember the summer of 82 hanging out in the inner harbour Victoria. Not so easy anymore. It was not broke ,so, in typical Government style, they fixed it until it is broke. Ditto much of the coast south of Sechelt for which I rarely go there any more. The north is still relatively free, as long as you hang off the anchor..
How big was your Roberts ?
Yes ,the best boats are those you build for yourself, rather than commercially built, where every skimping means the difference between survival and bankruptcy.
Boats sold well and quickly back then . A friend just bought a Vancouver 27 in good shape, with a good inboard yanmar diesel, for $4K. In 82 they sold for $57K.
You would be hard pressed to find a layup like your Flicka in new boats today. If anyone tried that at today's prices , they would go instantly bankrupt.
 
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Brent Swain said:
You would be hard pressed to find a layup like your Flicka in new boats today. If anyone tried that at today's prices , they would go instantly bankrupt.
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Sounds very much like the way my two Island Packet yachts were laid up. I have seen the plug that was bored to fit the depth transponder-over 30mm thick. Tri radial rovings hand laid up makes a sound boat. Other quality vessels in GRP, think Nauticat, Najad, HR, Swan, Cabo Rico, Malo, Sweden Yachts etc.-all good strong vessels.

On the subject of deck leaks, my 16 year old, several Atlantic crossing-not by me-IP 350 had a leaky portlight-stripped threads through overtightening-easily rectified, and a leak through a stantion base after a mooring incident in high winds-it got bent and tweaked the base, bending the mounting screws. Not such an easy fix as the bent screws were reluctant to revolve and were fastened into a glassed in aluminium base plate. I drilled the heads off and used a new pair of vice grips on the protruding ends to tweak them straighter and then remove and replace them after resealing.

My ex-pat mate who lives on Whidby Island has a Flicka, cracking boat. Did Pacific Seacraft make them?

Merry Christmas Brent, and a happy and successful new year.
 
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