surveying ferro cement boats

[pman]

hi everyone
we are looking at buying a ferro cement boat that was built professionally in the seventies here in australia by a brian osbourne (spelling might be different). he is a shipwright and surveyor. has anyone heard of him, knows anything about him? any info is appreciated! thank you

[Boracay]

Could you give us some more information.
Designer, where built, LOA, beam, power, standard of fit out, photos, construction (truss frame, single shot??) etc.

I built my ferro boat in Sydney in the seventies and there were very few professional builders then.

[pman]

dear boracay, thanks for replying. please don't take this personally but because we haven't bought the vessel yet nor paid a deposit, we are very reluctant to give too many details about it. we don't know if it was built in sydney, it is a wilf okell. if you tell us more about the boat you built we can tell if it could be the one we are looking at. thank you very much

[Boracay]

The boat I built was a Hartley.

[Evan]

The title of this thread threw me - how does one survey a ferro cement boat? I know one real worry is the armature getting rusty, but how do you know the plastering job is done well too? Maybe some ferro owners could chime in with their experience.

[Alan Wheeler]

Yeup. happy to chime in. The big plus with FC is that you can not hide trouble. If there is an armature problem, you will know. If the plastering is bad, you will know. No way to hide it. They will bleed rust everywhere. Don't worry about the little bits you sometimes get from wire ties, they can be easily sorted. But an armature issue will be horrific. In saying that, it is extremely rare to find an armature problem. Most of those problem boats no longer exist. Even bad plastering is easy to spot. Look for tell tales signs like where does the boat sit in the water. A good telltale sign is the stern. Does it squat down below waterline. Thats a good indication of over plastering adding excessive weight.
The big area's to watch for are actualy the topsides. They will be timber or ply. Inspect just as you would any timber boat. Another good indication on how much love was put into biulding the boat is the internal fitout. Some FC boats were built cheap to be cheap and they still look cheap. Care and effort to detail will tell you a lot about the biulder.

[brioz]

Originally Posted by pman

hi everyone
we are looking at buying a ferro cement boat that was built professionally in the seventies here in australia by a brian osbourne (spelling might be different). he is a shipwright and surveyor. has anyone heard of him, knows anything about him? any info is appreciated! thank you

I may have been the builder of the boat you are referring to. The last photo I saw of the boat it was called 'EMU'. Is it 44 feet on the deck with a beam of about 14 feet (would have to look for the original drawings for exact beam 13'9'' ?) an aft cabin and displaces about 17.5 imperial tons and was a single mast cutter rig. The owner at the last contact had the NATA certified tests for mortar strengths used in plastering the boat. At that time (early 2001) he was contemplating removing the four cylinder Ford Diesel as it was getting tired after 25 years of service. The hull was said to still be in excellent condition without any significant rust marks. When you strike the hull of a well built ferro boat with as lump hammer it sounds not unlike the the sound of a steel boat struck in a similar manner. The last known owner was working in Rockhampton when he bought it and was planing an extended retirement voyage.