Steelboats

[newtothis]

I'll see your $1000 in 6 weeks in a garage using basic hand tools and raise you $800 (Canadian) in 4 weeks (weekends off) in a disused barn using only a Swiss army knife and a box of matches.

Well that just proves you're a pathetic marina queen who has been sucked in by Big Pocket Knife industry. Losers like you will spend your whole life working because of all the lies match manufacturers have sold you and will never get to spend 11 months a year bouncing off reefs [while building 12 boats a year and surprisingly always having access to the internet so you can tell people how great you are].
No. You should follow my One True Way, and build your unsinkable ships in a tent, using hand-wrought Coke cans tempered over a driftwood fire lit by the spark from striking the chip on your shoulder against a coral reef. Only then can you have an opinion about anything.

 

[bbg]

Well that just proves you're a pathetic marina queen who has been sucked in by Big Pocket Knife industry. Losers like you will spend your whole life working because of all the lies match manufacturers have sold you and will never get to spend 11 months a year bouncing off reefs [while building 12 boats a year and surprisingly always having access to the internet so you can tell people how great you are].
No. You should follow my One True Way, and build your unsinkable ships in a tent, using hand-wrought Coke cans tempered over a driftwood fire lit by the spark from striking the chip on your shoulder against a coral reef. Only then can you have an opinion about anything.

Coke cans? I laugh at Coke cans. I could do it with Fray Bentos tins. With the pies still in.

 

[newtothis]

Coke cans? I laugh at Coke cans. I could do it with Fray Bentos tins. With the pies still in.

Now I remember where I've seen those welds before...

 

[Tranona]

Pity really, in amongst the somewhat bold claims he does actually know a lot about little tricks to make a good steel boat which don't make it into the books.

The pity is that those good things get hidden in all the other stuff he spouts, particularly all the unsubstantiated claims made about the so called dangers of ocean voyaging (or indeed any kind of sailing) in a GRP boats.

 

[A1Sailor]

The pity is that those good things get hidden in all the other stuff he spouts, particularly all the unsubstantiated claims made about the so called dangers of ocean voyaging (or indeed any kind of sailing) in a Plastic Marina Queen.

Jeez - get with the lingo why don't ya.

 

[Wansworth]

Is that ABBA then....

 

[Brent Swain]

Brent, you have made it clear over and over again that a rust bucket is the right kind of boat for you. No money and poor navigation / pilotage makes rust the right choice. For you.

But most people who want to cruise long distance can afford something better, and they are competent enough not to end up on a reef every time they make landfall. So GRP is the best material. For them.

You shouldn't think that everyone is as incompetent a sailor as you, or that earning even a modest living is all that unusual. Don't judge others by your own inadequacies. GRP beats a rust bucket 999 times out of 1000 - at least - but not for you.

I see very little rust on my boat any well maintaIned steel boat, but i have seen nightmares of osmosis on many plastic (Pox bucket) boats, along with rotted out balsa cores, (Rot buckets) on most of them, and no shortage of deck leaks.
Anyone around here who wants a plastic boat can have one, including a lot of formerly homeless street kids. They are incredibly cheap,often free. One freebee is moored off where I have my boat now. A friend bought a 40 footer for $4K . Another a Vancouver 27, $55K in the 80s, now $4K
For long distance cruising, a well built and maintained steel boat is exponentially better than plastic, Ye, if I suddenly found myself boatless . I could buy a plastic boat any time, until I could find a good steel one. I have enough money to buy a dozen plastic boats, any time. No thanks

 

[Daydream believer]

I see very little rust on my boat any well maintaIned steel boat, but i have seen nightmares of osmosis on many plastic (Pox bucket) boats, along with rotted out balsa cores, (Rot buckets) on most of them, and no shortage of deck leaks.
Anyone around here who wants a plastic boat can have one, including a lot of formerly homeless street kids. They are incredibly cheap,often free. One freebee is moored off where I have my boat now. A friend bought a 40 footer for $4K . Another a Vancouver 27, $55K in the 80s, now $4K
For long distance cruising, a well built and maintained steel boat is exponentially better than plastic, Ye, if I suddenly found myself boatless . I could buy a plastic boat any time, until I could find a good steel one. I have enough money to buy a dozen plastic boats, any time. No thanks

I have seen a few steel boats where you would probably be paid to take them away, so it works both ways.:encouragement:

 

[Brent Swain]

I agree with that as I have a steel boat and have made several mistakes in the construction that has increased the level of maintenance.

2 main points is to clean the boat hull inside and out to grey metal then paint and paint and paint again. The paint some more.

It a pity a GHA says his approach is so confrontational.

I met a guy who worked on freighters . He said the captain wanted to keep the guys busy, so he put them to work chipping a huge, thick buildup of paint off a bulkhead, and repainting it with a couple of thin coats. It was giving no problems with the thick, ugly buildup of paint, accumulated over many years, but began giving non stop problems with the much thinner "Pretty" coats of new paint.
If you want smooth, and whats there is giving no problems, then fair it , don't remove it.
Moitessier had lots to say about this.

 

[Brent Swain]

I have seen a few steel boats where you would probably be paid to take them away, so it works both ways.:encouragement:

EXACTLY ! Unmaintained boats deteriorate, regardless of material. There are companies here advertising to get rid of your boat for only $1,000. They are busy , dealing with 90% plastic boats.
In Frisco they are grinding up plastic boats no one wants to make concrete reinforcing. Makes sense . Glass is silica, the same stuff as sand, but in a far better shape for concrete reinforcing.

Plastic boat breaking up under it's own weight in a totally protected bay ,on soft mud.

 

[Brent Swain]

.

As to Mr S, in this or a parallel thread I’ve seen pictures of his raw welds and read his attempt at evaluating loads upon a structure. Evidence enough for me to form an opinion. His polaraising views should be taken with a pinch of salt. That said, I wish him fair winds.

None of my welds has ever broken, even when pounding on a Baja lee shore in 12 ft surf for 16 days . The proof is in the experience. Nothing more ludicrous than claiming that boat was not strong enough, nor others which have survived similar torture tests,theory and cosmetics aside, except for YOUR claim that one can determine the strength of a weld by looking at a picture of the slag covering it.

 

[DownWest]

Brent, it is not just HIS claim, but everbody, on several forums, that have seen the pictures of your welding. You keep going on about how you have never had a failure in X years of welding boats. Either you are very lucky, or??

Also, you frequently slag off recognised designers and builders, to the point of libel. I am surprised that nobody has sued you yet (perhaps they have?) but likely there is no point as your lifestyle would make it pointless?

 

[Mister E]

Brent, it is not just HIS claim, but everbody, on several forums, that have seen the pictures of your welding. You keep going on about how you have never had a failure in X years of welding boats. Either you are very lucky, or??

Also, you frequently slag off recognised designers and builders, to the point of libel. I am surprised that nobody has sued you yet (perhaps they have?) but likely there is no point as your lifestyle would make it pointless?

Could it be that the whole thing is glued together with PLASTIC (epoxy).

 

[rotrax]

Fair enough

Bicker away

Pity really, in amongst the somewhat bold claims he does actually know a lot about little tricks to make a good steel boat which don't make it into the books.

And despite agreeing with him and praising the way he has managed his chosen lifestyle around building simple and inexpensive boats, he still derides and patronises those who have no interest in owning a steel boat.

This is my beef with him-he obviously knows what he is about, but has no other direct experience for comparison, just " My mate says " and he is too thick to see that he will never convince 99% of sailors that his way is best.

And he makes things up, or embelishes it , as with the Bolleux re HMS Antelope.

IMHO, of course.

 

[NormanS]

Is it not about time that all this childish name calling thread was stopped. It's worse than a school playground. :disgust:

 

[sarabande]

A possible anagram of Brent Swain is "We bin rants".

 

[Brent Swain]

Is it not about time that all this childish name calling thread was stopped. It's worse than a school playground. :disgust:

Agreed! Lets stick to boat points .

 

[Brent Swain]

Brent, it is not just HIS claim, but everbody, on several forums, that have seen the pictures of your welding. You keep going on about how you have never had a failure in X years of welding boats. Either you are very lucky, or??

Also, you frequently slag off recognised designers and builders, to the point of libel. I am surprised that nobody has sued you yet (perhaps they have?) but likely there is no point as your lifestyle would make it pointless?

When a boat survives 16 days of pounding on a Baja lee shore , it is not luck which stops it from breaking .Strength alone can do that. Luck would never survive that kind of punishment.
It is my critics who insist one can rely on luck, and odds , rather than strength in a cruising boat. If Jesus , Mohamed, Allah and Budda all claimed that anyone can determine the strength of a weld by looking at a picture of the slag on it, they would all still be just as wrong , as they would if they all said a weld which can survive 16 days of pounding in 12 ft surf, is not strong enough.

 

[Brent Swain]

Brent, it is not just HIS claim, but everbody, on several forums, that have seen the pictures of your welding. You keep going on about how you have never had a failure in X years of welding boats. Either you are very lucky, or??

Also, you frequently slag off recognised designers and builders, to the point of libel. I am surprised that nobody has sued you yet (perhaps they have?) but likely there is no point as your lifestyle would make it pointless?

I don't think courts would accept a person who started libeling me, posting years of lies about me, and threats, and encouraging others to threaten me physically, as my most ardent critic has done, as being libeled by my response in correcting his lies. I don't think they would buy his US style exceptionalism. I don't think courts would consider statement of fact as libelous, at least not in Canada. I have asked him about his offshore cruising experience , in any boat, including steel boats, his liveaboard experience ,long term maintaining of steel boats he has owned . Nothing to say, only changing the subject, to me, a safe assumption that he has none, or he would be crowing loudly about it, like he does for weeks after a day sail around the harbour. His constant stream of lies about be and my boats would kill his credibility as a witness. A counter libel suit by me would wipe out his piggy bank quickly .

 

[bbg]

Agreed! Lets stick to boat points .

You do realise that you are the one that has engaged in the childish name-calling, right?