Ferro Hull Repair

[livethedream]

Hi guys...I'm new here and looking for some useful advice or links on how best to repair my hull. It's been on the hard for a year and looks to have some previous repair work. It didn't look like this when I first pulled her out of the water and she's going back in the water in 2 months time.

Many thanks in Advance.

[livethedream]

Here is a closer pic.

[atoll]

this is caused by the steel armature rusting and expanding,unfortunatly this could be terminal to the hulls integrity as once salt water enters the core it is able to seep along the chicken wire mesh core,exposing further areas to corrosion.

a short term solution is to cold chisel or hammer drill off cement that has become detached,acid treat any exposed steel,then rebuild with epoxy filling compound.

looking at your photo the good news might be that this corrosion is confined to the thicker ballast area that has plenty of concrete above in the bilge area.

once it moves into the thinner hull sides matrix areas then the vessels seaworthiness and hull integrity can be seriously compromised if in a seaway,with sudden failure a risk.

[LLCoolDave]

Ouch, I feel for you. What is the make/model of the boat?

[CSY Man]

There is a few hard core Ferro Fans on this board and they will tell you any Ferro boat is easily repairable, strong, sea worthy and the best thing around since sliced bread. The rest of the world is just biased, misinformed and ignorant

[atoll]

Originally Posted by CSY Man

There is a few hard core Ferro Fans on this board and they will tell you any Ferro boat is easily repairable, strong, sea worthy and the best thing around since sliced bread. The rest of the world is just biased, misinformed and ignorant

building an inner skin around a previously repaired hull puncture that had started leaking in the sudan,halfway up the red sea and in the middle of nowhere on a Hartley Tahitian ferro!

boat is still in daily use 10 years later in turkey

[Snowpetrel]

Id second atols thoughts. Similar issues can also be caused by the typical steel punchings that are used for ballast rusting and expanding, but normally this shows up in the bilge first.

If its the only bad patch it can probably be fixed. If there are other signs of cracks and rust weeping out of the hull in many other places as well things might be getting beyond a reasonable economic fix.

A lot depends on how well the boat was built in the first place, and if things like hollow pipe frames were used(a potential rust issue), and if usefull aditives like cromium trioxide to reduce things like hydrogen bubbling along the metal to cement bond which can result in a creeping rust problem thats hard to stop. Was it single shot or double shot plastered? Get hold of bruce binghams book on cement boats if you can find an old copy.

Is there any sign of some steel reinforcement left in the crack?

The steel reinforcement is the critical part of a ferro cement yacht. If its ok the boat has a chance. If its all rusting away you're possibly best cutting your losses.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, livethedream.