Glass over steel?

[unclemack]

Originally Posted by atoll

alternatively insure it well and go sailing in some deep water

In the early 80's had a customer/drinking pal tell me gleefully that he'd just received a ridiculously high payout for his wreck of a (Heather pink IIRC - yuck) Jaguar XJ6 - and that the local junkie who'd "stolen" it for him, leaving it on the beach with an incoming tide, had only charged him a couple of bottles of kaolin & morphine for the job.

Couldn't tell which made him happier, ripping off the insurer or the bargain basement junkie.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention... junkie had worn out his welcome with every pharmacist for 50 miles apparently, hence the bargain price

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by Mattz

He says it's too far gone to repair, and we need to scrap her.

I'm with a64pilot - she probably can be saved, the question is if you're willing (and able) to invest enough money to do that.

Our last family boat was a 100 yr old, half sunken steel hull waiting to be scrapped when my father bought her. Nobody believed that hull could be saved. Turns out, she outlived my father and is good to go for another 100 yrs or so.

We evicted the ducks living in there, found a company willing to tow her (while pumping for dear live ... not recommended. We all aged years in those few hours, can't insure a job like that (looking at Atoll here )) and what would have been my inheritance went into fixing her up, haha!

So yeah -- it can be done, provided you know your steel and find the right professionals to help you. And you will need a LOT of time & money ... (He did everything he could himself; having 2 adult kids work for you for free helps a lot too ).

This was a 82' hull which was shortened to 65' and just getting the steel hull back afloat and in a seaworthy state cost about €80k (including the deck and shortening, excluding the steering house). Bottom left pic shows a lot of the original hull (looks black in pic) - for that money, she was restored, not rebuild.

Probably not worth all the work and costs, but since you love your boat ... who knows. As you can see from the pics, people have done crazier things and loved doing it too ...

[leftbrainstuff]

Originally Posted by Mattz

We have a beautiful old 29ft steel keeler, which started leaking. We hauled her out, and a welder tried patching, but it has rusted away internally, from being damp. He says it's too far gone to repair, and we need to scrap her.

I asked about putting a layer of fibreglass over the outside, but several people have said it won't work. Why is that? I thought epoxy mix integrated with whatever it was put on.

It wont work because the joint will work at the epoxy steel interface and fail catastrophically.

The epoxy steel joint is mechanical not chemical.

Epoxy lined steel tanks are commonly used in pressure vessels. The epoxy lining is contiguous which is very different than a patch repair.

You have two choices. Grit blast and then patch repair by welding steel plates or scrap the hull.

A third choice is grit blast and thermal spraying but is probably cost prohibitive.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Triumphant]

As another steel boat owner of a 45 year old boat, I would look into getting the boat tested using the NDT method (Non Destructive Testing), NDT is what they use for checking pipelines and new welding. It does not have to be someone who only does boats. I got my NDT man from Yellow pages

This will identify the size and the shape of the problem then get some quotes from other welders. It may be a lot of work but it has to be pretty bad to be un repairable and steel is cheap to repair compared with other materials

We have 4 mm plating and the tester marked anything that was less then 3 mm thick for us to get replaced. Providing there is not too much filler and/or paint on the hull it does not have to be removed before testing.

Good luck

[Banshe]

Believe it or not but polyester resin adheres to steel far better than epoxy. The only trouble is the steel has to be perfectly clean before applying it. Many years ago I glassed a rusted out perforated coachhouse on a 65 ft steel schooner. I took it back to bare steel with paint stripper and a wire brush. I used two layers of 1 1/2 oz CSM, and standard polyester resin. The area was over 100 sq ft. To this day it is still there and in good repair. Don't use rust killer. It creates a film which prevents the resin from penetrating the steel. You could try a few sq ft on your deck.

All in all it would be a massive task to strip all the paint off, then try and lay glass on a hull that is 'the right way up.' But I think it would work.

James