When choosing a boat, it’s essential to consider not only its size and comfort but also the hull material from which it is made. Materials such as wood, steel, aluminum, fiberglass (GRP), and ferro-cement each have unique properties that can significantly impact the performance and durability of your boat. In this article, we will explore the various options for boat hull materials and help you make an informed choice for your maritime adventure.
If your wallet runs to it, then the old saying, “a foot of boat for every year of your age” remains true for anyone over the age of 20. Sadly, regardless of age, if you are shoestring sailing then large is pricey to buy and run.
What size of boat do you need?
As boats grow longer they become fatter. A 40 ft (12 m) boat is around three times beamier than a 20 ft (6 m) boat; its working sail area is about four times greater, and its mast over twice as high. Above deck everything is three to four times bigger, heavier and more expensive and below deck there is at least four times the space to be fitted our. On the other hand, a second-hand 20 ft (6 m) yacht costs about the same as a new winch on a 40 ft (12 m) boat and its annual running costs, even on the most generous calculation, are less than a quarter.
The easiest way to save money is to buy the smallest boat that meets your requirements. Unfortunately, “small” is an elusive word to define. It varies with the sailing you do, who you do it with and where it all takes place. Time spent deciding what small means for you before you begin looking for a boat increases the chance of finding the right boat.
Sleeping arrangements
A large part of defining “small” depends on the sleeping arrangements. If you are marina-hopping then on passage some bunks can be used as seats or for seabag storage and only become beds in harbour.
With a V-berth in the forepeak, a couple of sea berths and minimal onboard facilities, a crew of four aboard a 20-25 ft (6-7,6 m) yacht can happily spend a couple of weeks cruising from harbour to harbour where regular and easy access to good-quality shore facilities makes modest discomfort all part of the fun.
The same four crew making extended passages need a bigger yacht with better facilities. Once you spend more than 24 hours at sea everyone needs a proper berth of their own and somewhere other than a seabag to stow their kit. The galley must turn out proper meals, not just hot drinks and snacks, and those off watch should be able to rest without being disturbed by those on watch, or at least be able to pull a curtain across their bunk to give an illusion of privacy.
There must be a decent toilet, a large et locker and stowage for the additional supplies, fuel and water. Your ideal boat has now grown to 35-40 ft (10,6-12 m) overall with a much higher specification and a matching price increase.
If you are sailing with young children, open plan accommodation can be a disaster. In the evening parents are exiled to the cockpit while the children are in their bunks below. Sleep is the last thing on children’s minds. They spend the evening waiting to ambush any adult who looks below to check if they are asleep. A cockpit tent is essential for any sort of social life, Better still, having an aft cabin as a bedroom/playroom gives the children their own space and leaves the rest of the boat free for parents to socialise and sleep, but this means looking at yachts in the over 30 ft (9 m) range.
Comfort and size
Comfort ought to be in direct proportion to size but this is not always the case. Some larger, older boats which look as though they should be able to accommodate their crew in absolute luxury are spartan below decks and life aboard is horribly uncomfortable. A few days’ fair weather passage-making leaves their crews looking like shell-shocked battlefield survivors. Beat this in mind when looking at older boars
Do not confuse size with seaworthiness. The trend is for bluewater boats to be 40 ft (12 m) LOA or larger but this requirement is not written in stone and often the extra comfort that larger size should bring is lost because of the numbers on board. Gipsy Moth IV may not have been particularly cosy when Sir Francis Chichester sailed it round the world but it would be ferociously uncomfortable with five people living aboard.
If you wish to venture onto the oceans and cannot afford a large yacht then the list of small boats that have successfully made bluewarer passages is long, and is still growing. Regardless of size, a well-equipped, well-maintained yacht is always more seaworthy than a larger, ill-equipped, poorly-maintained boat.
This is because the quality of fitting out of any yacht is directly proportional to the time and cash spent on carrying out die work. It is quicker and cheaper to properly fit out a 20 ft (6 m) LOA yacht than one that is twice as big; the result is likely to be a boat that is not only more fit for purpose but Cruising in Comfort on a Sailboatmore comfortable to sail.
What hull material?
Each building material has its proponents who swear by it and each has its disadvantages that they ignore. Ultimately your choice is a very personal decision and reflects not just cost but the sort of boat that you feel happy to sail and maintain.
Wood
As the number of yards building wooden boats began their near-terminal decline in the 1960s, many classic wooden designs enjoyed a renaissance in GRP. Nowadays, a second-hand wooden boat is either very old and has had a costly renovation with a price tag to match or requires a huge amount of expensive, skilled restoration. If you want a new wooden hull, it will be a pricey one-off from one of the few remaining yards working in wood.
Plywood is still popular for the hulls of some dinghies and home-built multihulls and there are a few plywood Choosing the Right Boat by Typesmall cruisers such as the Mirror Offshore available.
Maintaining a wooden boat in good condition demands much cash and lots of time. Unless you have the necessary skills this type of boat is not a good option for the budget sailor as the expertise for this work is in short supply and is reflected in very high labour charges. Traditionally, wooden hulls were painted with yacht enamel paints.
Nowadays, the hull should be protected by epoxy paints beginning with a primer and working up through an undercoat to several layers of topcoat. Any damage to this coating must be made good as soon as possible to prevent water seeping between the paint and the wood. Owning a wooden boat is more of a love affair than a cheap means of getting afloat.
Steel
Steel is able to withstand bumps and bangs well but steel boats are heavy, and slow in light winds. As a hull material, steel is generally found only on yachts over 30 ft (9 m) LOA and almost never on sailing multihulls. Size alone makes professionally-built steel yachts expensive but steel is popular with DIY builders who reckon it gives a large, cheap hull.
It is important to protect the hull and deck from rust. A good, multi-layer epoxy paint job probably lasts for five to ten years but this is costly and time-consuming to apply. Good insulation is necessary to prevent condensation inside the hull.
Aluminium
Although aluminium offers the strength of steel with less weight there are comparatively few aluminium boats. Perhaps this is because, unlike steel, it is not a cheap and easily-welded material. There are few DIY aluminium yachts and even when professionally and expensively built, there can be problems with galvanic reaction between different metals.
This is most common around deck and hull fittings. Properly built and maintained, there should be no problems but if you wish to buy a second-hand aluminium boat, check it out very carefully.
GRP
Glass reinforced plastic or fibre reinforced plastic is also known as fibreglass or polyester. Since its introduction in the 1950s GRP has become the material of choice for leisure craft because it is easier to clean and cheaper to maintain than other hull materials.
GRP lends itself to production-line techniques. Hulls and decks can be laid up by one company, using semi-skilled labour, and fitted out by another, Since the build quality is standardised, some builders have reduced woodworking, which is skilled, time-consuming and expensive, by dropping in GRP furniture modules with a lite wood trim when fitting out the hull.
There ts nothing wrong with this in principle but some internal hull areas become inaccessible and there can be problems reaching seacocks and hull fittings for maintenance.
As more has become known about GRP, the very heavy lay-ups found in early boats have become progressively lighter. Modern isophthalic resins promise better water resistance than early resins and some boats are now laid up using epoxy rather than polyester resins with carbon fibre reinforcement. Some GRP hulls and decks, especially decks, may be of a Characteristics of Different Types of Construction Materialssandwich construction where a layer of wood, usually end grain balsa, foam or paper honeycomb is sandwiched between two thin layers of GRP. This combines strength, lightness and rigidity but is not without its problems if the bond between the core and the GRP fails.
Another drawback with GRP is osmosis, where water penetrates the gelcoat and collects in voids in the lay up, creating blisters on the hull and ultimately leading to delamination. Osmosis can be cured, but at a price. Otherwise GRP is a strong, easily-worked material, although if the hull is damaged, the more advanced laminates will require careful matching cf materials to give a good repair.
Build standards
Claims that a production yacht meets Lloyd’s A1 or any other standard does not mean that the boat was individually checked for compliance with the standard during its construction.
Read also: Manufacturing of Fiberglass Boats and Design Features
This is done for one-offs but for production yachts these statements are based on checking a small, representative sample and then applying the results to an entire production run.
All yachts built in the EU must comply with the standards laid down in the Recreational Craft Directives.
Ferro-cement
Ferro-cement has a surprisingly long history as a boat-building material. A steel shortage during World War 1 saw a short-lived project to build ferro-cement tugs and barges. Some examples survived into World War 2. Ferro-cement had a renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s when it was a very popular method for DIY yacht building as it gave the biggest possible hull for the least outlay.
An armature of steel rods and chicken wire mesh in the shape of the hull is plastered with cement. The quality of the finish depends on the skill of the plasterer and the life of the boat on how well the armature was treated against rust before plastering. Concrete is not completely water-proof. When moisture reaches the metal of an unprotected armature it rusts. Rust occupies more space than clean metal.
Over time the layer of rust thickens to a level where the bond between the concrete and the armature fails. Cracks begin to appear and finally chunks of concrete fall off. This is called exfoliation. The first signs that it is happening are rust streaks running down the hull. These blemishes are sometimes explained by enthusiastic owners as “cosmetic” rust. If you wish to buy a ferro-cement boat, then the extra cost of a professionally built hull is better bet than self-build but even then it must be very carefully checked out by someone familiar with building these boats.