I'll be following this thread with interest as the owner of an aluminium yacht. My boat, like many such boats has a
hull that is unpainted above the water line. There are pros and cons, but mostly pros. As I see it, my boat has all the advantages of
steel; strength, ruggedness but (mostly) without the problems of corrosion. And that special advantage, I can weld stuff on, not just bolt it on. But I have no expertise, other than owning such a yacht.
And the reality is boat constriction materials are one of those endless no win arguments: mono vs multi, fin vs full(ish)
keel,
wheel vs tiller,
cutter vs
sloop vs
ketch, and more and more today,
diesel vs
electric.
But this topic has a great many discussions,
books and youtube vids and bloggs out there. But quite a number of youtube vloggers in particular I've found to be biased, and/or just lack knowledge and expertise.
As I guess a watcher/reader of many of these over the years I have developed a view that aluminium boats are popular (or unpopular) somewhat geographically. So it has struck me that in the great and huge North American continent it's not a favoured boat building material (grief NA people can't even spell the word correctly: it's ALUMINIUM not ALUMINUM, and pronounced with both i's too). Where as in say Western
Europe, particularly
France and
Germany many very high quality brands build with aluminium. Especially boats intended as expedition vessels in high latitudes.
And as a
member here on CF for a few years now, it has struck me that perhaps because of the forum's (seemingly) very high proportion of North American members, then aluminium isn't much favoured as a boat construction material. Certainly at least from those that regularly post their views. I would encourage other members to perhaps provide stats on this. My 'gut feel' may be very wrong.
That popularity (or lack of) thus also governs the attitudes. So say (I don't actually know this, just hypothesising) that in Victoria
Australia (yes it's a State) there has never been an aluminium boat
builder in the last 50 years or so, then there'll be limited knowledge and experience but the boat building industry in that area. So most in that past of the world would steer any prospective buyer away. But if you were in say
France where aluminium is much more widely used then there is considerable expertise and the resulting knowledge base much higher from the people on the ground working with the stuff every day. A boat
builder trained in GRP isn't going to luck a job at a yard turning out aluminium boats nor vice versa.
And where I live down under, if you're going to build a
work boat, ie
fishing vessel, barge,
ferry, river boat etc, then way more likely to be aluminium than anything else. It takes the knocks, doesn't rust, if you drop your dive
tanks in the
cockpit say then the worst that might happen is a little dent (oh in the dive tank, not the
cockpit floor). The stuff they build boats from is very strong and incredibly hard wearing and it really takes the knocks.
So what prohibits more boats being built in aluminium, besides lack of expertise, knowledge and experience? Cost, aluminium is a relatively high cost building material for a boat. Far more suited to one off designs than production runs with moulds.
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