Is it worth it?

[ausnp84]

Originally Posted by seashine

I'll add my tuppence worth here: is it easy to get at the interior? Some professional interior fitouts are a nightmare for accessing the hull/frames and need to be completely destroyed in the process. And fully agree with roverhi that you'll always be up for at least 20k to get even a reasonably well cared for boat to a standard you feel happy with...

Agreed on this one. I took on a damp steel boat that had been professionally built and the surveyor said was a small project. Six years and well over £100k later, I can assure you while steel boats are rock solid and can be had for cheap, they can also be total nighmares.

I’ve gone back to GRP but an older design so it’s thick as anything and should withstand whatever the Pacific and Atlantic can throw at it.

Good luck with your boat hunt... there’s plenty of good projects out there people have sunk a lot of money into and just run out of steam with!

N

[valhalla360]

Sounds like you got lucky the cousin is living on the boat.

Anything can be repaired if you throw enough time and money at it but that sure didn't look like a good option.

[Juggles]

Fair call. Can I ask why you think that it didn't look like a good option? I'm assuming you're much more knowledgeable than I am and you're thoughts are something to look out for next boat I check out.

[valhalla360]

50% chance it costs you at least double your estimate to get functional (but not great condition).


50% chance, you realize its not worth it and junk it in the end.

Lots of used boat available if you want a project.

[Juggles]

Yeah that's the general consensus I've noticed. Makes it a little easier when you strike out again haha. I'm sure I'll find my project boast eventually. Found a really nice Roberts spray that had basically no interior fitout except galley and saloon plus some random mattresses in berth areas but everything else wiring plumbing rigging was all done. Was that large and heavy an extra 12k was added for transport from NSW to Adelaide. Also a mate mentioned with my very non nautical hubby no chance sailing it soon. Hope to find something like that again but easier to sail. Easier to sleep on mattresses and make a bedroom around you than deal with rust patches

[Reefmagnet]

Wanna see half a refit in 3.5 mins?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onl4Xpp72cI

[Coltrek]

Looking at the way the rust is sprouting out of that boat, it doesn't look like they took much care with primer. That is the most important thing with a steel boat. It needs something like zinc chromate, galvanized, or coal tar underneath all that paint. But, a little tough to do after the fact. I brought my C&C 39 back to the shop for a refit, thinking I would have it done over the winter. But it took 20 months. It was painful. I put a fortune in money, and much more in labor, and now that I'm trying to sell it, very few people have looked at it for 30 grand. Probably end up selling at for 20. Practically everything has been replaced. This is the thing that most people don't realize, is that it makes much more sense to buy a boat that someone else already dumped all the money and work into, than to try and do it yourself. You end up spending years, and tons of money, when
you could have been sailing. Better off to buy a refitted boat and go sailing, and just make money doing what you can make the most at, and buy a fixed up boat cheap. A Beater will beat you down. Just my opinion, derived from years of experience.

[Cherod]

Silver lining

[TrentePieds]

Since you are set on a project boat, I think you would do yourself a favour by googling for "sail life". That will bring up a video by some Danish bloke who is apparently funding an extensive refit of a Warrior 38 - frozen snot hull, of course - by posting what amounts "how to" videos every week. What's more, he does it in excellent English. Even with a sense of humour. There are something like a hundred'n'forty videos by now

No dickie-birds, no palm trees swaying in the breeze, but VERY sound advice on just how to do the job - ALL the jobs required to bring a boat to "as new" condition. I s'pose I should slip him a fiver now and then, but generally speaking MY boat gobbles up all the fivers I have :-)

TrentePieds

[gmakhs]

I used to be fascinated about the strength of steel vessels but the more I cruise the more I see the hasle they need to be kept seaworthy , the vessel may need a lot of work , welding , grinding , re-planking and who know what else .
The main problem is not the job that it will require up forward but the job to keep it in shape later all this add up .
If you gonna save money from rent and you gonna have fun go for it .
I spent 15.000 for my boat and now I am in Carribbean cruising happily .

If you find a good fiberglass boat it may need leads work and for me is easier to work with fiber for repairs but that's just personal opinion.

[jimisbell]

I bought a 15 year old Bruce Roberts 44 CC Ketch with steel hull. I am not complaining because I found another sucker to take it off my hands for half of what I paid. But in the 5 years I owned it I spent massively on it, mostly on the steel hull. Double plating the forward 1/3 rd of the hull, etc. I finally decided to dump it when the fuel tank decided to rust thru on the bottom and it would take cutting the side of the boat out and building another tank (side of the hull was one side of the tank).



Before you buy it, get behind the walls....especially the head and the galley, and look for rust...big time.... Steel boats dont rust thru from the outside, they rust thru from the inside. I had a surveyor give it a go over with a sonogram tool before I bought it, but that was only a 12" grid and wont hit every spot. And even after the survey, I found, behind the wall in the head, huge sheets of rust that peeled off in 1/4" thick sheets. The permanently affixed interior walls will hide the inside of the hull. If the hull was not properly prepared AND painted on the INSIDE, run away, dont walk.

[mikecambrai]

The hull is the critical part of any boat. Apart from the engine everything else can be from IKEA.
I would recommend that you have the hull checked by a surveyor who will measure the thickness of the hull. Concentrate on those areas which have seacocks, under the engine bed, rudder stock and where the frames connect to the hull plates. Most steel hulls rust from the inside at the place where water can collect. A good heavy hammer tap all round is also a good thing. It is so easy to miss areas of thin plates on a steel hull.
Welding nowadays is so much easier using modern light Electro welders, but believe you me I have seen so many cases where hidden areas of thin steel can be difficult to find and are only found by chance. If you are only going to use the boat on the inland waterways, it will not be so stressful than the boat having to fight a savage sea.

[Psy at SEA]

Juggles ..... RUN



''On a steel boat no corners should be hidden and beyond reach of a paint brush.
Use of Flat Bar, not Angle Iron or T sections ''

Bernard Moitessier ~ A Sea Vagabonds World.

See: https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/199...ketch-3211502/

Juggles....RUN !!

[Ward Person]

Hi, I am habitual boat rebuilder. I ask myself repeatedly why, why?
I have come out of the dust and debris somewhat whole.
34' wood pocket seiner, learned planking, sistering , deck and cabin repair, gallons of paint. used it commercially for 4 years. Traded it for land, good recovery. Boat now a hot tub, fitting end.
37' glass gillnetter learned engine replacement, shafts, hydraulics, electric, hynautic shifts, steering. Used commercial forever, had to buy a another salmon permit to pair it with to get a sale. Sold at market high, whew. Boat is in Bristol bay after 5' hull cut off. Real ugly now.
32' oday sailboat, chased deck leaks forever. Traded for a Harley, rebuilding that in free time.
Took the funds from the gillnetter purchased a Wauquiez Amphitrite. Made a ridiculous low offer and was hooked. Not too bad most of the heavy lifting was already done.
End of the month heading to work on my 36' delta rigged as a salmon troller. One of the first deltahulls 1968, bought it cheap, didn't haul it out. It was winter, dark, was assured bottom was good, that any damage the seller take care of. I mean the boat ran, took it out the harbor, what could go wrong? Knew better, why, why?
Have a load in the van ready to head to the ferry. New shafts, paint, welder, glass materials, stud removers, electronics. Have the resin there already after installing a keel a 5' at a time.
Glass work ahead, repair cabin roof, rebuild bow spray rail, rebuild exhaust housing, fish holds, New deck then complete sand and paint.
New steering, shifts, stainless exhaust, electrical. Now there is a nightmare, one of the po was a electrician, plus the bonding has to checked which will be easier as I removed 6 1"1/2 thru hulls?
How does this relate to you buying this steel hull? I have welded in the Martine environment for, long time, docks, bridges, boats. Be careful. The pictures of that guy repairing his steel boat is the norm.
While I was covering my wreak, to protect it from SE Alaska winters, the yard hauled a 70' steel gulf shrimper that sat in the harbor for years. Story was, that a Canadian would buy it, but it had to go 100 miles down the coast. I was on the roof of my boat hooch and looked over as the yardbirds washed the marine environment off the hull. What was that shiny stuff showing? Had to look, every weld was gouged out like the air arcing I've been a party to in hull repairs. I looked down the turn of the bilge and said to myself, "isn't the fuel tank part of the hull?"
Went back to my rat killing up on the roof. All of sudden things got exciting, yardbirds running towards me grabbing my 5 gallon Jerry cans, they had a geyser shooting across the pad. I told them that there was 55 gallon drums from the pump out next door. (Sidenote, I brought to the attention of the yardbirds weeks ago that water was not suppose to be running out a stern bearing.)
Any I couldn't stand it, had to go look. What a mess, the owner was standing in a spray of diesel attempting to staunch the flow with splash zone. I told him it is wonderful stuff, but it doesn't stick to diesel, besides it's not to be handled with bare hands. So I went to my supplies and got everyone gloves.
The saga continued, local boat butcher asked me if I could weld up the hull enough to launch it. I told him it would have to be cash up front with a release since I am a CW and a CWI.
So, they brought in this young man, after a couple hours I went in to see how He was doing. He was sealing it up with 5/32 low high, doing good. His only problem was he would run into something and weld would blow out. I looked closely, that's splash zone applied to the inside, so that's where the splash zone came from.
I looked up and saw Orange light through a hole, do you have a fire watch? Turns out owner was inside with a light. I told him that his welds looked good on such thin metal. He said why didn't I do the welding, told I wanted cash up front, when the cash ran out, I would stop. So they hired you, make sure you get paid, besides when the surveyor gets here he will pull the plug, he did.
Boat is still in yard, owner took off in the dark of night.
So the moral of this story, steel boats need as much maintenance as wood boats, maybe more.

[Bourne]

Go for it. Partner and self worked on a steel boat for some years. Moitessier (read his books) says that a lot of rubbish is talked about upkeep on the steel you have to paint it and a achimpanze can paint. Also todays paints are much improved..