Looking at buying Ferro Boat - Any pointers?

[SailSummerWind]

We owned a ferro, that was professionally build and sailed around the world with previous owners and us. We sold it years back and she is still out there, changing owners and sails the oceans, not siting in marina. It was heavy, a bit slow , but we were not racing, we were cruising. We would do 150-170mn/day. On a plus side little maintenance and we hit corral block and only scratch the paint, and were siting on non charted reef for 2 night waiting for high tide and help, with almost no damage. This was 14years ago and boat is still out there, with happy owners blogging away.
Don't listen to negatives on cruising and chartering. Remember if it would be easy everybody would do it ;-)

[captain58sailin]

Perhaps the seller could provide the builder's name, address, phone # or any information? So that you might contact the original builder and get an idea about the construction and methods used.

[HankOnthewater]

I have owned my ferro sloop for nearly 20 years, and I sailed and worked on many other ferro yachts.
Although this is an older thread, the question was for pointers in buying a ferro boat.
I think all the previous posts in this thread were all true, or true to a large degree, and nothing ‘false’ that I could see was said.

- Generally heavy boats are slower (like ferro), but can be more comfortable
- Yes, some ferro yacht can be surprisingly quick, especially when compared with other slow designs.
- If the hull and deck do not have a recent ( ie last 2 years) cosmetic work done ie paint, then a lack of rust streaks, lack of bubbles and lack of unevenness indicate a sound hull, certainly after 20 to 30 years.
- Lack of insurance options is a problem worldwide, although I got mine insured.
- To bring an old ferro boat into survey: near impossible
- Damage from point impact ( ie hitting rocks, or floating onto a beach) is likely to penetrate the hull
- Running aground or on the reef, on the keel, generally no problem
- Rigging needs to be heavier for the same size boat (as the boat is heavier)
- Ferro is nice for insulation: cold, heat and noise.
- Maintenance for a good ferro hull is less then any other boat: just paint every 3 to 5 years, and as most ferro boat owners do not mind a less than shiny gelcoat look, cheaper paint applied by owner will do.
- With the value/prices down in the 2nd yacht market it does not make much sense to buy ferro. For about the same $$ one can have steel, for a little more: GRP.
- The only time ferro currently would be better if a complete yacht will all up-to-date cruising equipment is offered well below (ie I guess 40-60%) of any other boat of that size.
- Sorry, there is a 2nd reason when ferro could be considered: when it is very very cheap, as a live aboard only; condition of sails, rigging, electronics, groundtackle, safety gear, engine etc. are then not important; price in today’s climate -I guess- us$5-15k
- As has been said before: hull is worth nothing.

But…. I still like many of the larger Sampson designs, they sail so smoothly, so easily…….
For me? Time to move to a bigger boat, very unlikely to be ferro.

[GILow]

Oops, see this is a bit of an old thread now... anyway, just in case...

Hi Zooplax, a couple of random thoughts... in no particular order, as I read through this discussion...

1. Weight. We weigh a fair bit for a 42 footer, at between 15 and 17 tons, (depending on who you ask). This is of some concern to me as if we are 17 tons, then we are within 1 ton of the maximum rating for our club's slipyard, and if they had to reclassify their system downwards, I could well have a problem. 23 could be a big problem to slip, certainly fewer options.

2. Ferro. Well, three of the boats I most admire around our club are ferros. Superbly built boats, lovely lines, just plain good looking. All are in excellent condition, but each is still owned by the original owner as each owner has admitted to me during visits to their boat, that they cannot afford to sell them. Each sails well enough for my tastes, but I am no racing sailor, so I am not well placed to comment on performance. Importantly, each has been VERY well maintained, and has, of course, a full maintenance history. I get the impression that this maintenance history may be more critical to a ferro than, say, a GRP, but that is pure speculation on my part.

3. Insurance. Not sure if it applies to your situation, but for me there are two types of insurance. Third party and comprehensive. I have third party, if I run into someone's mega gin-palace and sink it, I am covered, my insurance will pay for their boat. But if I sink, I am stuffed. Swim home, bad luck, no more boat. Comprehensive to cover my boat is just too complicated until I have finished the rebuild (and even then, probably too expensive), and so I am self insured in that respect. I simply bought a boat I could afford to lose. Could this situation apply to yourself?

4. Charter. Well, not sure what it is like in your part of the world, I had a very brief look at it here in Oz, more out of curiosity, and yikes, forget it. My IMPRESSION was that unless I was sailing something under 10 years old, and probably more like 5 years old, it was simply not practical, again, mainly due to insurance. I know I spent days on the phone trying to charter an older boat before we bought our boat, as I wanted to try something a bit like what I was planning to buy, and I found NOTHING in Australia over 10 years old.

Good luck, may whatever you chose be the right boat for YOU.

Matt

[haiqu]

Originally Posted by captain58sailin

Perhaps the seller could provide the builder's name, address, phone # or any information? So that you might contact the original builder and get an idea about the construction and methods used.

Both of mine changed ownership many times in the last few years, as hopefuls bought them and then realized the job of fixing them was beyond their resources. With the younger boat being built in 1984 it's unlikely a chain of ownership would be realizable even with concentrated research, and the builders are likely to be demented or dead by now.

This can be quite a problem if you need to get national registration in Australia, since they need the full ownership history. Even knowing the build plate number doesn't help, these records seem to be unavailable to the public.

[Sandman9]

I've recently bought a boat and I think you're being had.
If you have not yet bought contact masterathena@hotmail.co.uk

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by haiqu

....

This can be quite a problem if you need to get national registration in Australia, since they need the full ownership history. Even knowing the build plate number doesn't help, these records seem to be unavailable to the public.

This is not entirely correct. While they request full ownership history, there is a process that allows for registration in Australia if such history is genuinely unavailable.

I had this issue when I placed my first boat on the Aussie register. It was home built with three previous owners before it was even launched and I had zero details of anyone except the person I purchased it from.

I had to provide all details that I had, a Statutory Declaration stating that I could not provide further details, place a public notice in the local (state) newspapers stating it was my intention to register the boat fully in my name and also place a notice in the Australian Government Gazette to the same effect. They gave me suitable wording for these notices. Then wait 30 days to see if anyone objected or came forth to claim ownership. After that, registration proceeded normally.

Yes, it was a little tiresome but certainly doable and they gave me all the help they could.

[haiqu]

Good to know there's an alternative process available for when the time comes to register one of mine. Although dealing with AMSA by snail mail only, as they require, could still drag this out for 6-12 months.