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Old 29-05-2006, 13:25   #1
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'Cement' Boats

Elsewhere on this forum I've read some not so positive opinions about ferro cement boats.
In the early seventies I built a 32' Colin Archer Sampson ferro cement boat. The planes were cheap and all around were 'dreamers' working away on what was usually to become their personal nightmare.
The one thing that set my boat apart is I had the bucks to turn out a properly constructed finished product. The cedar plug was fair. The armature was tight. The 'cement' was applied by a crew of Portuges artisans. The hull was put in a steam chamber for the required time.
Of course that was just the hull. Time and money was spent to complete the boat. That boat is still water tight, rust free and happily sailing today.
Sure she isn't fast but she's reliable and safe in all weathers.
She's roomy, cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
If a ferro cement boat is proper built she is just as fine as any other.
There are few better books than Bob and Nancy Griffiths 'Blue Water'. They walked the walk !
They are among the most famous Blue water cruisers who ever lived. They made three circumnavigations. Oh yeah, their boats were ferro cenment.
Eric Hiscock calls the Roths----------well just Goggle it.
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Old 29-05-2006, 14:48   #2
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During our search for a sailboat to take our dream trip with I looked at a number of Fero's. I actually drove from CT to Va twice to look at some, most were terrible. However, the first boat I made an offer on was a Sampson 49 foot D-Duece. It was was without a doubt one of the best built boats I have ever seen. Unfortunately or fortunately depends on how you look at it we could not come to terms. I ended up buying a 40 foot Far East Ketch that needed a lot of work. But it is beautiful boat, and I will know ever inch when complete, which is what I really wanted anyway. In fact I hope to put in a new Westerbeke 64 this month. My point is that there are some fantastic Fero's out there, you need to have them surveyed closely, but they can be fantastic boats. Just thought I would put in my two cents for whatever it is worth.

Fair winds
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Old 29-05-2006, 16:00   #3
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The problem with FC boats is that there are so many bad ones. I fully acknowledge that a ferro hull can be a fine vessel, but buying a boat is always a gamble, and with ferro boats, the odds are against you. I owned a Sampson C-Smoke 40, and have considered 2 other ferro boats. Of the three, I knew the builders personally on two, and both of them were exactly what they were advertised to be. The third one, was advertised to be much more than it actually was. Had I not known what I was looking at, it looked like a fine boat, It wasn't.
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Old 30-05-2006, 02:45   #4
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in the way of a traditional style cruising boat, ferro is very good buying right now in the land of OZ. The vile reputation keeps the value down but it is hard to find a bad one anymore cause they are all dead and gone... OK.. not all but they are getting rare to spot and the good ones just keep going.

Old friend of mine has built numerous ones and his current boat was so fair I thought was glass untill he told me. He built a ferro trawler and worked the coast for prawns for many years with it. Not as tough as steel but so easy to repair. He got T-boned by a drunk fisherman in Gold coast years back and suffered damage. Caved in gunnel. He went to work on it that afternoon and by next night went fishing. Only missed one night out. He currently sails out of Yamba NSW, usally single handing on his hartley and some day I will do a bio on this remarkable man but thats another thread!

Cheers

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Old 30-05-2006, 05:23   #5
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Last point: If you find one with well maintaned engine, standing rigging, sails etc. chances are the hull was properly done. Nowdays a good surveyor will bring along an ultrsound type device and that will show if the cement and armature were done right. It even shows any air pockets.
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Old 21-06-2006, 11:39   #6
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How do you repair a fero hull?
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Old 21-06-2006, 15:08   #7
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It depends

Repair of a ferro cement hull depends on (in no particular order)
1. The extent of the damage
2. What the boat is made of (yes there are different types of ferro cement)
3. Where the damage is
4. The urgency of the repair
5. How the boat was made
6. Where the boat will be used after the repair
7. The desired quality
8. The nature of the damage
and many other factors.
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Old 22-06-2006, 01:06   #8
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Depends on the size of damage. Small dings and dents can be repaired with Epoxy motar and large area's with Cement plaster in exactly the same way it was built.
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Old 23-06-2006, 06:53   #9
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Like Bob says,FC's are good buying right now in Oz ya can pick up a decent 38fter for under $AUD35,000 .The thing with the ultrasound device is that it cannot pick up if the steal inside is rusting out(That sort of thing tends to blow the cement out)If made correctly you wouldnt see much of that happening,but ,the only way to tell would be to take a section back to the sub structure when doing a survey.There are other ways to tell if the steal inside the cement has been compromised and if Wheels could take over this part as he explains it so well,I think it's second nature to him!!,and no doubt it will be less confusing than if I did.Mudnut
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Old 24-06-2006, 13:16   #10
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Well certainly Mudnut.
OK, this is where a lot of "old wives tales" prevail. The only way for an armature to rust is to have a major amount of damage to allow seawater to come in direct contact with the steel work. This sort of damage is more than just hair line cracks, it is glaringly obviouse damage and bad enough that the worry of what is inside the plaster is not the concern. Two things happen with cement and steel. The alkalines in the cemement act as a oxide nutrilizer. Ask any body that has had to do a major repair to FC and they will tell you that the steel was lovely annd clean inside. Infact, an old tale used to be that you had to keep the steel armature clean of rust before plastering. Well actually, it is recomended that you allow it to rust a little. The cement binds to the steel better this way and the rust it's self stops working underneath.
So going back to the question, there is no need to worry about what is happening under the plaster. If there is a problem to worry about, it is in the plaster its self and will be glaringly obviouse. Like major cracks, not to be confused by fine hairline cracks that are common and go no where and are opf no concern, but a major deep crack that may even weep rust.
Don't worry about the little weep of rust you also sometimes come across. It is usually just a small sprag of netting that had come to close to the surface during plastering. No, the rust will not follow the neeting and eat it out.
Cement has one major advantage over all other materials (bar steel). It works via Reverse Osmosis.
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Old 25-06-2006, 00:06   #11
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If a carefully built ferro cement hull was built right the first time. Then you only would have to keep the boat painted. And the annodes changed every year or so.

Ferro cement is still one of my first choice boats that I wouldn't mind owning. And that's just out of my personel preferance.
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Old 25-06-2006, 00:11   #12
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I know of one that the guy never painted nor even anti-fouls. He dries her out every now and then and knocks the mussels off and away he goes again. Not exactly my idea of how to treat a boat, but.........
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Old 25-06-2006, 00:17   #13
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Well Alan.

Yeah. That is quite different than the normal way of doing things?!!

"To each, his own!!"
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Old 26-06-2006, 00:35   #14
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Ferro Hull

My Hartley 32 was professionally built in the early 80's. When I bought her she had been in tha water for over 20 years, and she shows no signs of rusting armature or other such problems.

She is currently on the hard in front of my factory for fitting out, and most people who come to visit (and are interested and know anything about boats) think it is a fibreglass hull. This is despite the fact that it has not yet been re-painted!!

I agree that most of the bad press in relation to ferro comes from the extremely poor examples that were produced in the 60's and 70's, but as has already been mentioned, most of these have disappered.

Maybe (and us ferro owners can only hope and pray) this may signal a more positive attitude to our choice of hull material and improve our resale value. Ever the optomist

Fair winds

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Old 26-06-2006, 00:35   #15
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Ferro Hull

My Hartley 32 was professionally built in the early 80's. When I bought her she had been in tha water for over 20 years, and she shows no signs of rusting armature or other such problems.

She is currently on the hard in front of my factory for fitting out, and most people who come to visit (and are interested and know anything about boats) think it is a fibreglass hull. This is despite the fact that it has not yet been re-painted!!

I agree that most of the bad press in relation to ferro comes from the extremely poor examples that were produced in the 60's and 70's, but as has already been mentioned, most of these have disappered.

Maybe (and us ferro owners can only hope and pray) this may signal a more positive attitude to our choice of hull material and improve our resale value. Ever the optomist

Fair winds

Steve
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