[Alan Wheeler]

Actually I would like to go a step further. So how do you judge an FC hull if you look at one. Well mainly, there are a few points that are easily detectable.

How does the boat sit in the water? This is were the most common mistake was made. Over weight. The builder thought the strength was in the Cement. A properly built "to the design" hull is not that thick. And many builders over plastered adding no additional strength, just major excess weight. A properly built hull is lighter than the equivilent steel hull. Another mistake was to build all the topsides in cement as well. Now don't get this part wrong, some areas of deck will be FC, but none of the cabin work. This added a tremendouse excess in weight, especially high up and made the boat handle like a drunk elephant. It is easy to spot any of these mistakes. She won't sit at her designed waterline.

How are external fittings attached? Here again big mistakes were made. Bollards must be through bolted with plates on the underside and in some very well built boats, the actuall bolts are welded to the steel armature. Ofcourse, that part is hard to know, unless the owner can tell you that is how it was constructed. No Metal should ever be epoxied to the deck. The expansion rates are so greatly differing between the two materials, that the epoxy will share away fromt he cement surface. All fittings must be bolted right trough with an adhesive sealant doing the sealing.

Hull fairness Now this is not whether the hull is smooth enough for a reflection, you are looking for lines in the plaster. The plastering MUST have been done in one complete hit. You simply can't do it on your own, it takes a team of guys to start and finish in one day. If you don't, you can get a situation similar to painting and not maintaining a wet edge. So it will show as a ruff plastered line were the wet plaster has not "melded" into the dry plaster properly.

Is the boat true? Take some measurements from the centre line out to each side. Now don't panic if it is not identical to the fraction of an inch. But do if it is miles out. You don't want a lopsided boat.

Cracks! This is one of the most common causes of panic and misnomer. Have the boat hulled for inspection. Allow the hull to dry in the sun for awhile. Now you may find very fine hairline type looking cracks on the surface. Don't panic, these are mostly paint and extreme outer surface of the plaster cracks and can be normal and of no importance what so ever. What you are looking for is once the hull surface has dried out, look for cracks that have remained wet for sometime. This is a sure indication the a structural crack is evedent. Look for a sign of imnpact. It is possible that this is a damage area and repair is not hard to have carried out. But if you see several cracks around the hull that are damp, then be wery that the hull may have internal structural issues.

Rust! Another common cause of panic. Small spots of rust can be common. It is not a sign that water is entering the hull. Most of the time, rust will be seen on the deck and gunwales etc. This is because it is difficult to plaster these areas. Gravity makes it hard to get a coat on teh deck and the gunwales are fiddly. Sometimes the mesh underneath has a small "sprague" of wie sticking up close to the surface, and this little piece can cause rust. Don't panic, the Rust will not run down into the structure and destroy it. A rust problem that does need serouse concern is a large crack int eh hull that has rust weeping all the way down the crack. This is a structural issue and it means water is at the core. Does this mean the boat is a dud?!? no not at all. It is very rare that the rust will "wick" its way down the steel armature. I will come back to that in the next segment.

A rusty armature during construction!!! I have heard so many "chicken little" comments over the years about this. Here is the fact. It does not matter if rust is present on the armature during construction. Infact, it is now considered the best way of building. The cement acts on the rust and turns it into something else. Although I have been told what, I can't remember, but it is something to do with the strong alkaline nature of the cement. Now that some experiance has been gained with repairs to FC hulls, it has been seen that the pre-rusted armatures seem to have a better hold to the cement than was realised. So when the cement is broken away from the armature for repair years later, the armature has been found to be far from rusty.

Hull strength!!! Impact strength is very high. I am not going to try and argue that it is any higher than say steel or any other material, but I can argue one point. It is much harder to penatrate an FC hull than any other material. It may crack on impact, you may stove it in even, but the cement will remain intacked in even the most sever case of impact and even if it lets water weep in throught the impact zone, the hull will remain intacked and most likely get you home. Repair is simple, cheap and quick, with the result of being virtually impossible to see if you have it done right.

Thats all I can think of for now. If anyone has any other questions, please ask and I will try to answer if I can.