Thoughts on this 27ft steel mono

[cameron82]

Hi all just saw this little yacht was wondering if anyone had any feedback on it .Considering buying it steel yacht | eBay

[Cheechako]

Many people think steel is too heavy in that size of boat, that it makes more sense when you are over 40 ft. It looks decent but really not much info given. You might do a google under the designers name and try to ferret out any handling notes etc.

[cameron82]

Can't find much on it but love steel yachts was wanting it just as a bay and short coastal cruiser thanks for your reply

[kmacdonald]

Steel is too heavy for a boat that size. It would be slower than slow.

[tkeithlu]

Steel is a pretty antsy material below 4mm thickness. It's too flexible, oil-cans easily, and has no margin for rust. You don't want to emulate that legendary sailor who was chipping rust on the hull of an old destroyer early in the Second World War and put his chisel right through the side........below the water line.

[cameron82]

Thanks for the replies

[Lepke]

I'm wondering what postage is to the US. It cost me $40 to get a book from Australia.

[cameron82]

I could deliver it to you but might take a few years

[barnakiel]

A boat is a boat. Go have a look let us know what you found.

Do not buy sight unseen unless you need expensive scrap metal.

Looks very basic. What about masts, sails, engine, etc.?

b.

[hpeer]

I have 2 steel boats. Any steel boat needs an extensive physical survey of the interior by the prospective owner. How's your welding? Wanna learn?

[cameron82]

I can weld pretty average my welds look like micheal j fox did them lol currently helping a friend rebuild a 66ft ketch which is going to be a great learning experience. We just bought a garnet blaster and a 3 phase tig. The reason behind this boat is not about speed its more so i can moore it in the Brisbane river as i am planning on going to uni .I like the simple layout of it and in Australia its hard to find a decent boat on a budget .

[justwaiting]

As I am sure you know Boden boats were a design rather than a make. A lot / most of them were home constructed. Some of them were made out of the appropriate steel others were not. Some were welded by quality welders - many were not. Most were built over a number of years and often were rusty well before they were finished ......

The problem that I found when I went hunting for a steel sailing boat about 10 years ago was that the ones I looked at were rusting from the inside out due to a number of factors. That is why you were advised to do a very careful survey of the inside of the boat. One that I looked at on the Gold Coast had a paint blister in the bilge - when picked off sea water started to seep into the boat. I did wonder why the broker declined to get on the boat with me when I went to look at it.

Looking at the photos it would appear that the boat you are looking at was not well maintained - steel boats are very hard to bring back to a satisfactory condition compared the FG boats. If you look at the photos it would appear that the boat would have suffered from the effects of rusted out and leaking windows and hatches as well as the inevitable condensation. The way that many of the boats were constructed did not allow for drainage of water and resulted in rusting in the location of the framing.

I ended up buying a Roberts - had a lot of fun and learnt useful things before I sold it. It was a good day when it sold

You say that you want the boat for use in the Brisbane River and the Bay but it is located in Victoria from what I can see. Therefore you would have a long coastal voyage ahead of you - the boat would need to be seaworthy and be equipped for that journey. You would also need the time for the voyage as well as the preparation. If you are going to Uni starting next year time will be a major factor and that is always an issue.

Then there is the issue that the listing does not say if the motor work - sails, rigging ........

I think you need to keep looking

[gjordan]

Looking at the photos I see the same problem that I had on a similar, but larger home built steel boat. It appears that the keel is not shaped as a foil, but rather it comes to a knife edge at both the front and back. This will lead to poor windward performance and the keel will tend to stall much sooner at slow speed. My rudder was also just a flat plate and would stall easy. The boat had serious lee helm at slow speeds. I sailed it 5 or 6 thousand miles and decided it was better to sell it than rebuild the keel and rudder. My advice is that if you are going to mainly use the boat to live on, is to buy a GRP boat and worry less about upkeep. ___Just my 2 cents worth. ____Grant.

[Compass790]

Going to be some considerable cost to get it in water for a start, will be slower than the 2nd coming.If using as a liveaboard unless its properly insulated it'll be hot as hell in summer & cold + wet in winter.

[jheldatksuedu]

I've owned and fixed 2 steel boats, one was this size, and the other is 45 ft and the one I plan to circumnavigate in and has circumnavigated with the last owner. The smaller one was just bought to fix up and resell for a profit. They do normally rust from the inside out, I've spent a lot of time making sure that any water that does find it's way inside, there will always be some, when pumped out does not leave the last 1/2 cup sitting against the steel. I do this by changing the shape of the top pf the concrete ballast to have a sump built into the center of it, that will hold the last of the bilge water. This boat having hard chines would have most likely been home built, my big boat was built professionally, no hard chines. Being home built, simple construction would probably have been more important than sailing performance, that will make a 10% or so difference in top speed. Depending on your plans that most likely would not really matter. I would not buy this boat for the price asked, I bought both of mine without prior inspection, but the deals were to good to pass up, I bought my big boat for less than this price, knowing full well it would not float, and it had a brand new $15k engine that had never been started. If this boat was good, it could be worth it, but the only way to know would be a careful inspection. On both of mine I was the only bidder, not many people are interested in a steel boat, so the prices are normally very low. I wanted steel since I plan on spending a lot of time where there may be ice bergs. Plan on most likely doing lots of work yourself, you can not afford to pay somebody else to do the work. It normally would be more reasonable to build new from scratch, if your going to have somebody else do the work. Then you would know what you have.