Survive The Savage Sea - How would a GRP boat fair?

We occasionally get fringes of hurricanes here - fortunately no direct hits for a very long time.
Some years ago a ferro-cement yacht (long keel, long overhangs) came ashore here on a sandy beach (no rocks) in one of these fringes, when the wind came round to the west and her mooring ropes chafed through.
She had been properly constructed to a high standard in South Africa.
Yet she sustained multiple fractures and holes in the hull, and ended up being carted away in bits in a skip - a very sad ending for a lovely boat.
A year or two later we had another hurricane fringe with westerly winds, and in similar sea conditions a single chine plywood Robert Tucker designed yacht (fin keel and spade rudder) came ashore on the same beach. Her rudder stock broke, and she had one small hole in the hull, and that was about it - she was quickly patched up and was soon re-launched.
 
EdBeynon said:
I don't really think eating turtles would be much of a goer, I've seen about 3 per ocean. I've seen a whale swim alongside the boat I was on (60 footer) and they are pretty big beasties. Apart from the air out of it's blow hole being pretty fishy it was quite an agreeable thing which is just as well as it was big enough to reduce us to flotsam if it was angry.
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The couple who survived in the Pacific for 179 and a half days lived on turtles alone for god knows how long!
Stu
 
I don't know whether people have seen the picture of the steel boat that was hit amidships by the bow bulb of a freighter. I think Swagman of this parish took it. The picture was taken after it arrived in the Canaries and shows a big bowl shape dent in the side. Since ships are bigger and heavier than whales a steel boat should survive a whale strike.
 
I agree with Kellys Eye, steel is ultimately the best for absolute strength and Sherman tank effectiveness.
In another one of our fringe hurricanes (I think it was David or Allan, in 1979 or '80) a South African home designed / built steel ketch came ashore in Carlisle Bay here, and spent a few days up against a concrete groyne, pounding against a corner of the groyne.
When she was eventually pulled off the whole side in contact with the groyne was dented in everywhere - looked a bit like the pock marks on a golf ball blown up - but the steel was not holed or fractured anywhere, and all the welds held.
I think they perhaps bashed out some of the bigger dents, and carried on cruising......
 
Friend of mine was talking to a cruising couple near Indonesia. Their boat had a curiously turned up nose, seems that they mistook the lights on a parked supertanker for two separate ships and rammed it amidships (dark night) . That convinced him that steel was best.
A
 
So when they enter an anchorage now, their Sherman Tank boat will ram and sink you or me instead of a tanker? :mad:

:D:D:D

DownWest said:
Friend of mine was talking to a cruising couple near Indonesia. Their boat had a curiously turned up nose, seems that they mistook the lights on a parked supertanker for two separate ships and rammed it amidships (dark night) . That convinced him that steel was best.
A
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There was a steel yacht, about 34' long, med-moored bow to a concrete quay. The weather got nasty : 45-50kts with waves causing the boats to surge. This one started to be driven into the concrete quay repeatedly like a pile driver. The owner was away and the weather so bad that nobody was willing to jump aboard and tighten the stern lines. The first 12" of the bow was buckeled and foulded back. I don't remember any tear in the plate or failed welds that would have threatened watertight integrity ..... and any leak wouldn't have been serious anyway due to watertight chain locker bulkhead being intact. The repair was easy.

Unfortunately I didn't take note of the damage to the quay.
 
jwilson said:
Your example really does not look like a very well built ferro boat. Done well, ferro is incredibly tough, done badly it can be rubbish.
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Not half, look at the pics!
b29.jpg
 
>There was a steel yacht, about 34' long, med-moored bow to a concrete quay.

There was a similar incident in Roadtown BVI when hurricane Hugo went through, sustained winds 200 mph+. The Moorings had moved their boats away from the docks and tied long lines to the docks then lines to and across boats. The lines over the cockpit coamings sawed through the GRP, caused by the incoming swell, and a number of boats sank from rain ingress.

In the meantime a steel boat was moored in the corner of the marina bashing its bows against the concrete dock. When Hugo passed there was a 2 foot V-shaped hole in the quay and the boat's bow was scratched.
 
In a collision or grounding metal hulls (steel and aluminium)are vastly superior to GRP. This has to do with the "plastic" range of metals.
A simple demonstration is to take an Aluminium can, empty the contents ! and crush the can. Generally the can will retain its watertight integrity(apart from the opening where you drank the contents), despite massive deformity to the structure.
Or look at steel car after a serious accident. Even severely crumpled the surface will often still be intact.
GRP will fracture and split loosing its surface integrity much sooner and with a lower impact.
 
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The guy I met in the Azores who’s boat was attacked by a whale was sinking because the prop shaft was bent, I am certain the prop shaft was steel. Ferro steel and aluminium boats also have steel prop shafts.
 
Going back to ferro-cement, I have some lovely friends who live on their ferro junk El-Lobo.
After crossing from the Canaries early last year, they were ashore for most of last summer in Trinidad doing a major re-fit on the boat - and also patching a hole in the side caused by an errant jet-ski in Tobago.
Here is a link to a photo of the damage - http://www.el-lobo.co.uk/html/april_09_photos_18.html

While here is a link to their cruising log describing it - http://www.el-lobo.co.uk/html/april_2009.html
 
Again on ferro, there was an article (PBO?) about one that was damaged by piles. The difficulty in repair was getting back to sound material without further damaging the surrounding area and the problems extracting cement from the wire mesh.

The mate mentioned above has a ferro 34ft ketch. The plasterers did a job that looks like a GRP hull. Hull thickness is mostly around 20/25mm.
A
 
>The guy I met in the Azores who’s boat was attacked by a whale was sinking because the prop shaft was bent, I am certain the prop shaft was steel. Ferro steel and aluminium boats also have steel prop shafts.

A long keel should solve that.
 
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