Don Casey - Dragged Aboard Dragged Aboard by Don Casey
A Cruising Guide for the Reluctant Mate


      

Other books by Don Casey
| Home | Mailing Lists | Bookstore | Weather | Tide Predictions | Bowditch |

Re: [world-cruising] Fiberglass or Steel


Subject: Re: [world-cruising] Fiberglass or Steel
JAXAshby@XXX.XXX
Date: Sun May 11 2003 - 16:32:01 EDT


> >The question I pose to any body that is willing to give advice is:
> >What is the more cost effective option. A Fiberglass boat or a steel
> >boat?

Generally speaking, quality for quality a used steel boat is about 25% to 40%
of a production glass boat. (home made glass boats usually look absolutely
terrible and seldom sell easily past the 2nd owner.) Occasionally, a steel
boat owner will believe *his* used boat is worth 110% of a comparable glass
boat. Become knowledgeable regarding steel boats so you can personally
thoroughly checkout a steel boat without surveryor help and you can find some
bargains in solid cruising boats. Some homebuilt steel boats look it.
However, there is one steel boat wherein the factory versions are considered
*much* worse quality than the homebuilt ones.

Same can be said of (genuine) cold-molded boats (as opposed to wooden boats
glassed over in an effort to make a rickety hull last longer).

Because of the minimum thickness of steel plate needed for ordinary welding,
steel boats under roughly 40 feet (some say 36 feet, others say 34 feet) can
be a bit heavy compared to fiberglass (and damned heavy compared to
cold-molded).

Generally speaking, even a wretchedly assembled steel hull can live on for
decades, while wretched glass boats of the 1960's and 1970's (Grampion and
Coronado are two that come to mind) have, for the most part, long been cut up
with chain saws and dumpsterized.

> You and your lady want to sail around the world. How far would you and she
> be willing to fly in an aircraft built in somebody's back yard?

I flew my experimental (that's how homebuilt aircraft are licensed) for hours
and hours and hours, selling it only because it was a single place plane and
I married. Oshkosh Wisconsin hosts the Experimental Aircraft Association
every year and several thousand experimental aircraft show up. My brother
owns two such aircraft and regularly submits each to high-G aerobatics.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Rent DVDs from home.
Over 14,500 titles. Free Shipping
& No Late Fees. Try Netflix for FREE!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/BVVfoB/hP.FAA/uetFAA/A1TolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
world-cruising-unsubscribe@XXX.XXX

 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/



| Home | Mailing Lists | Bookstore | Weather | Tide Predictions | Bowditch | Trawlerworld |