Ode to the ferrous ore

[Sailor_Hutch]

<pre>

Steel is real
- the wise sailor knows

Save the plastic for mastic
- and the thru-hull hose

The ferrous ore makes for one fine boat
- do not with plastic cross even the moat

Lest you think I am jesting
- I must say with a smile

Not in plastic would I go
- not one nautical mile

Surely the ocean will give up its crates
- sending surf-board sailors to meet untimely fates

Steel is real
- every sailor should know

Nothing else for your boat
- if to the ocean you will go

Yes ocean crossers have been found in their tubs
- the wise salty sailors use them for rub-a-dub-dubs

I'll keep plastic in my wallet, not in my keel
- cuz the wise sailor knows
- that steel is for real

</pre>

I must apologize in advance for this enormously PC incorrect, material-bigoted post. I'm claiming excessive caffeine intake is the culprit (I do that on Fridays).

[hpeer]

[Liam Wald]

Very well written. And clever I might ad.
Hat's off to you skipper.

[Wotname]

Although I can't put it verse

Steel comes complete with its own self generating loctite!








(rust)

[55north]

The ode to epoxy-infused S-glass woven roving doesn't sound nearly as catchy... but it's as tough as steel and doesn't rust!

Still, good stuff steel. Best thing is, you can't economise and use polyester chopper gun steel - it's a guarantee of a good hull, whereas fibreglass can only ever be a suspicion of a good hull unless you saw it being built

[55north]

Oh, and nice poem by the way!

[frant]

I owe it all to the ferrous ore propensity to turn into ferrous oxide. My plastic fantastic, my house and kids education...Corrosion engineer and anode manufacturer!!

[daddle]

Titanic.

[charliehows]

Steel is real
the wise sailor knows

leave it alone for a moment
you reaps what you sows

an ounce of neglect
yields a ton of rusty muck

if on the ocean you will go
it'll dissolve like a soggy wafer

I'm a lazy man on a plastic boat
I feel quite a bit safer

[kthoennes]

Ha! Good one Charlie.

[Sailor_Hutch]

Originally Posted by daddle

Titanic.

Hmmmm....

Ok, the Titanic had its issues. Mainly, it was constructed of high sulfur content contaminated steel that became very brittle. It was what they could do in 1912, but a somewhat unfair comparison to make to today's boat steel and coatings offerings. ... But ... I digress.

Most of the following boats were not made from steel:

- Sept 25, 2012 www.worldcruising...:
Yacht Ciao sinks after collision with submerged object...

- Oct 30, 2011
news.google...:
Maine-built Racing Yacht Sinks "Airforce" Strikes Submerged...

- Jan 14, 2013 - Indian Ocean Yacht Sinking
www.wavetrain...: boat hits a USO (unidentified submerged
object) about...

- May 19, 2012 - Atlantic Rally yacht hits whale, sinks
www.sail-world...

- Mar 6, 1995 - Yacht Splinters and Sinks in...
www.nytimes...: Yacht could have hit a submerged...

- Dec 22, 2005 - Boat sinks off Bermuda
www.ybw...: They struck a submerged object in the early hours ...

- May 25, 2012 - Yacht in ARC rally hits whale and sinks "Triton"
www.the-triton...:‎ A yacht in the World Cruising...

- May 31, 2010 - Yacht "Victoria" SUNK after hitting a submerged
saildivebvi...: "I regret having to share the news..."

- Jan 11, 2013 Sinking of the 45ft "Ciao" -
forums.sailinganarchy...: Sinking of 45ft yacht Ciao in the
Indian Ocean ...

- Sept 24, 2006 - The loss of yacht Moquini -
www.sail...:‎ The yacht probably ...

- Dec 3, 1989 articles.latimes...:‎
A charter fishing boat with 19 people aboard hit a submerged...

- May 28, 2010 - Crew rescued from sinking ARC Europe yacht
www.yachtingmonthly...:‎ "Sweden 42" collides with submerged
object...

- May 31, 2010 - Yacht "Sentantii" abandoned after hitting a
submerged object during ...www.mysailing....

- Jan 24, 2010 - Bangordailynews....: Three-escape-injury-
when-fishing-boat-sinks ... hit a submerged object ... began to
sink...

- Jun 1, 2010 - www.boats: The 48-foot "Swan" sailing yacht
reportedly sank after hitting a submerged object...

- Rangers Rescue Four People From Sinking Boat
home.nps.gov... The caller said that the boat was rapidly taking
on water and starting to sink. ... the boat had struck a submerged...

- Jan 2 2011 Sail-World.com - Amazing rescue...
www.sail-world...: yacht hit submerged object ...
"Inanna" was a 49ft Bavaria class...

- Feb 4, 2013: Leopard 43 Sinks
www.multihulls4us...: "Leopard" 43 Sinks ... boat hits a submerged...

- Dec 19, 2011 - "Int'l Hunter" sinks in the Gulf
www.workboat...: - International Marine, were forced to abandon...
after striking a submerged object 30 miles...

There may be some duplicates, but these items were easily extracted from a few google search page results - downloaded between the gulps of my morning coffee. To be fair, I think that I could own an FG boat for coastal cruising, or for cruising in places where the helis don't run out of fuel trying to pick me up. In spite of a fair number of sinkings, I'll grant that the total sum of them constitutes a very small percentage of the cruising fleet. Still ....

Steel is for Real ....

[daddle]

Yeah. If your top priority in life is not sinking then by all means, stay with steel. I would rather drown than own a steel boat. And a quick count of the harbor here in the cruising capital of the PI challenges your useless list:

Wood: 1
Steel: 1 (2 if you count a derelict rust bucket that will never move again)
FRP: 29

So I suppose there is a 30 times greater chance that a FRP hull will be lost than a steel hull just because there are vastly more numbers. Let's make a count of the large steel ships lost in the last 30 years compared to the number of large FRP ships lost in the same time period....

[hpeer]

Without moving from the rudder post as I scrape barnacles I see:

1. Nice sleek center boarder, 36'. Board won't move, hull has a huge area of flex cracks on BOTH sides about 8 feet long by 3 feet wide. New owner says he has some "structure" issues, that aren't these.

2. Newish deep fin keel sloop. BIG chunks out of the keel. Nice line between keel and the hull to drain out water from the bolts.

3. 20is yo 36' production boat, with bulb and fin keel. Made it two days in the water. They went to take it out the channel and ran it onto some rocks. Now THATS hard to do in the Delaware. Tide went out, took some substantial bottom chunks with it. Rudder feels a little squeamish now, kinda loose. Humm.

First year we had the boat I wacked a submerged piling at 6 to 7 knots. Happened to be glancing at the fathometer when it occurred, read 40'. Lifted us up about a foot as we rode over it. Didn't even scrape the 2" thick steel shoe.

I did ding the keel in St. Pierre. Tired, midnight arrival, got disoriented and ran into a rock garden. I was able to back out, used the rudder to push her around the rocks. If I reversed real slow could feel them and push her around them.

Being an idiot I got caught on the wrong side of a ferry pier in in Eastern Quebec during a 50knot gale. Beat the stuffing out of the port side. Nice dent. Ate the fender board (2x8) in about 5 minutes. Blew a few fenders. 2-1/2 quarts of Bondo and some paint and she is as good as new.

We are all entitled to our opinions, and I respect those of others. But our sailing experiences are not all the same. I like out of the way places, kinda rough. So steel suites my cruising style, coarse though it may be.

[Sailor_Hutch]

Originally Posted by daddle

Yeah. If your top priority in life is not sinking then by all means, stay with steel...

Yes, that sinking thing is a big issue for me ...

Really, I think the reason it's more an issue for people like myself (and hpeer apparently) is that we fancy ourselves exploring places where it would be particularly unpleasant to be forced to move from the mothership to the dingy in the middle of the night.

As hpeer mentioned, there are different strokes for different folks. The problem I see, looming ahead, is that reports of holed yachts sinking in inhospitable places has been slowly moving from the "rare as hen's teeth" zone to the "not so infrequent" zone. How much more time will pass before there are bad ramifications that affect all of us, in terms of some international coalition to force rescue insurance and so forth?

Another thing is pushing the number of sinkings up to record levels. That "thing" is the drastic lowering of the barrier-to-entry for sailing (caused via the crashed economies that allow neophyte sailors to plunk down relatively low money, and then head across the pond totally unprepared)

If the neophyte is going to run into something, maybe he should have a bumper car?

My thread starter post was a bit over on the far side, I realize. I was doing it tongue in cheek. Yet it's driven by my personal tastes for adventure, and (perhaps) a somewhat lower tolerance for danger. That's an oxymoronic combination, I realize. And, as I mentioned - I do believe FG has a place in the realm (by providing the boat for what most people really do anyway).

[Bash]

Metallurgy 101

Steel may be real
But it's also ferrous
Its oxidation state (+2!)
Is enough to scare us.

Steal may be real
But so is rust
And ferrous oxide
Always turns boats to dust.

Steal may be real
But it's only an alloy
Agented by carbon
It could sink you now, boy.