The pro's and cons of steel boat building

[JumbleDuck]

Steel boats knocking the crap out of coral reefs doesn't sound like a good thing to me.

I was thinking that. Wouldn't it be easier not to hit the reefs in the first place?

 

[Daydream believer]

Lot of fishing boats made in steel & i think a few of those have gone down from time to time
& we cannot let this one go without a reminder can we
Always good for a laugh if the link works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWPwlMv8lNI

 

[lpdsn]

You'd've thought this thread would've rusted away by now.

 

[Brent Swain]

Your statement was "Steel boats do not sink" you do not qualify this with size or type. So you were either wrong or wrong, take your pick.

I made no such statement. Your putting words in my mouth, so you will have something to argue against, is an admission that you have nothing I actually said, to use against me.
The point I am making is, a steel hull drastically reduces your odds of sinking, in the size of boat we are dealing with here.The Titanic is irrelevant, given the law of mechanical similitude.
Making the comparison is as dense as saying "A guy who robbed a bank was blond, therefor all blonds are bank robbers."

 

[JumbleDuck]

The point I am making is, a steel hull drastically reduces your odds of sinking, in the size of boat we are dealing with here.

But all the examples you have given have been of steel boats running onto reefs. Can boats which are already aground actually sink? And why do steel boats run into reefs so often?

 

[Brent Swain]

I was thinking that. Wouldn't it be easier not to hit the reefs in the first place?

Yes it would, but we are humans , and all humans screw up sometimes. Those who say they never do are liars.

Then there are the hard things out there, which are not on the chart which are impossible to see coming on a dark foggy night. I have hit enough to be sure I would not be alive ,had I not been in a steel boat .Many are not, for that reason. Lots of uncharterd reefs being daily reported up north . How would you have avoided the humpback whale which landed on a steel boat in South Africa? What did the skipper do wrong in that incident?
Ditto hitting containers in the night? My solution is a boat which can easily survive .What is your solution? A boat which cant?

 

[Brent Swain]

And here is one response to that post.


Steel boats knocking the crap out of coral reefs doesn't sound like a good thing to me.

Boats which break up quickly when they hit a reef ,don't sound like a good thing to me.

 

[Tranona]

Yes it would, but we are humans , and all humans screw up sometimes. Those who say they never do are liars.

Then there are the hard things out there, which are not on the chart which are impossible to see coming on a dark foggy night. I have hit enough to be sure I would not be alive ,had I not been in a steel boat .Many are not, for that reason. Lots of uncharterd reefs being daily reported up north . How would you have avoided the humpback whale which landed on a steel boat in South Africa? What did the skipper do wrong in that incident?
Ditto hitting containers in the night? My solution is a boat which can easily survive .What is your solution? A boat which cant?

Why cannot you get it into your head that hitting something at sea is an extremely rare occurrence and coral reefs a simply not found in the places where most people sail.

You keep on making the fundamental mistake of generalising from a particular. of course if you sail where underwater obstructions are common and boats hit them regularly you might make a different choice of hull material. But whatever you say this only applies to a tiny minority of the worlds sailors.

It also explains why you spend nost your time talking to yourself because you have little in common with others.

 

[Brent Swain]

Steel boats don't look that good to me:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Schenectady

Exactly my point about the law of mechanical similitude. A plastic boat would break up in a much smaller boat , long before it got to anywhere near that size. That s why it is mechanically impossible to build anywhere near that size in plastic . Try get a 36 footer to break up that way. Not a chance.
BC Marine surveyor Paul Dupre bought a horribly welded steel 36 footer, and spent a day whacking the hull with a back hoe. Couldn't get anything to break.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Here is a steel yacht that didn't sink as a result of being whacked with a back hoe: -

https://www.ybw.com/news-from-yachting-boating-world/45ft-yacht-sinks-in-penzance-harbour-3202

 

[Brent Swain]

You'd've thought this thread would've rusted away by now.

And leave people to die from your dangerously misleading posts, and leave such disinformation unchallenged ? Not a chance!

Is that what killed the Sleavin family and ,we will never know ,how many more like them?

 

[Brent Swain]

Why cannot you get it into your head that hitting something at sea is an extremely rare occurrence and coral reefs a simply not found in the places where most people sail.

You keep on making the fundamental mistake of generalising from a particular. of course if you sail where underwater obstructions are common and boats hit them regularly you might make a different choice of hull material. But whatever you say this only applies to a tiny minority of the worlds sailors.

It also explains why you spend nost your time talking to yourself because you have little in common with others.

Yes, retiring in my mid 20s to cruise mostly full time since then, instead of going to work year round for life, as my critics mostly do, gives me little in common with them ,for which I am extremely grateful.

I have a lot in common with the youth in the liveabord community here, who have escaped urban homelessness and UBA ( urban brain atrophy) to live extremely happy lives on their boats, working just enough for their cruising funds, with lots of cruising time left over . They spend long hours on my boat, picking my brain for ideas . After 40 years of the cruising life, it is nice to have them to help out , and pass it on to.
Yes, rarely leaving the marina drastically reduces your odds of hitting anything.

 

[lpdsn]

And leave people to die from your dangerously misleading posts, and leave such disinformation unchallenged ? Not a chance!

Is that what killed the Sleavin family and ,we will never know ,how many more like them?

You're getting a bit confused again and are just rambling. Anyway, what are you doing back here? Been kicked off the sites on your side of the Atlantic?

 

[john_morris_uk]

Yes, rarely leaving the marina drastically reduces your odds of hitting anything.

If I can offer a word of advice, it would be to stop making silly supercilious remarks such as this one.

There are lots of people on this forum who are serious sailors and others who rarely spend time in marinas. Lots of us have sailed many thousands of miles and silly off the cuff remarks such as this one about people rarely leaving marinas just irritate people and do nothing to help people be sympathetic to your point of view. Lots of people who contribute to these forums have sailed across oceans and live on their boats much of the year or full time. In addition many of them have no desire to live the lifestyle you espouse. They like their creature comforts and their smart boats and they are not any the less of a sailor for it.

 

[Tranona]

Yes, retiring in my mid 20s to cruise mostly full time since then, instead of going to work year round for life, as my critics mostly do, gives me little in common with them ,for which I am extremely grateful.
Yes, rarely leaving the marina drastically reduces your odds of hitting anything.

That makes you non normal. Can you imagine what the world would be like if everybody behaved in the same way as you?

There is nothing virtuous or commendable about what you have done - in fact the words selfish and egotistical come to mind.

 

[Just_sayin']

Not even sure why you guys are engaging with him. There were five posts in a row where he was just talking to himself. The only thing you are doing is giving him the oxygen he craves.

 

[Daydream believer]

, therefor all blonds are bank robbers."

I know a few blonds who would rob a blokes bank account faster than a steel boat sailor could send a mayday

 

[JumbleDuck]

I have hit enough ...

I can believe that.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Exactly my point about the law of mechanical similitude.

What on earth do you think this "law of mechanical similitude" is? Similitude is of course an important concept in fluid dynamics, but I have never heard anyone refer to a "law" of it (I am currently writing an advanced fluids course for a major university, by the way).

 

[Deleted member 36384]

What on earth do you think this "law of mechanical similitude" is? Similitude is of course an important concept in fluid dynamics, but I have never heard anyone refer to a "law" of it (I am currently writing an advanced fluids course for a major university, by the way).

The models used at Glasgow University testing tank (and I assume others) used to have sand grains applied over an area of the bow to try and introduce a scaled roughness that one could not get on the model alone, or something like that.