Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramona
After 20 years in the navy and the last 25 as a professional fisherman I would steer clear of steel. Not to keen on rust converters, hides the problem for awhile. For spot repairs I would be inclined to look at car body repair methods and materials. Get back to clean steel, clean with the correct acids and paint as soon as possible.
Love the Van de Stadt 34 design, seems to be a lot for sale at the moment though. The composite timber ones appeal, only downside is it seems they have lead keels encased in steel.
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There you go Ramona, we are both ex pussers and both born Aug 15, you 2 years before me. I suppose you were a MOBI (Most Objectionable Bastard Imagineable for those not familiar) once and then a tiffie???
I fell in love with the Van De Stadt 34 design when they first came out. The frameless fairing construction method with CAD/CAM had reached it's time and they were the first.
They were touted at the time as being the lightest
displacement steel yacht of that size. They are more than a ton lighter than an
Adams 35. The design was also used for the Dehler 34 I believe.
My choice of steel is based on ease of construction and repair and the idea that there are more tons of steel floating around the oceans of the world than any other material and because of that every now and then there is a breakthrough in protective coating technology.
I have seen a couple of alloy VDS 34s and they seemed to sit quite high in the water. I have heard they are not very successful as a seakindly yacht.
Have also seen a few steel VDS 34s sitting quite low in the water due to being overloaded with solid timber fitouts and addition of steel dog houses etc.
Everybody I have asked with a steel VDS 34 that is faithful to the design specs has said they were very pleased with the yacht. One guy I spoke with had done a fair bit of Bass Strait cruising and said that in heavy
weather he just reduced to the working
jib and kept sailing.
Looking at the design overall and the time of it's conception I think it would come fairly close to meeting the old IOR one ton
rule. Because of all these factors I believe the yacht is best suited to comfortable coastal cruising and club
racing. Due to a fairly limited load carrying capacity I don't think the VDS 34 is a good choice for long term off shore cruising.
This may be the reason for some of the VDS 34s being for
sale.
I paid $35,000 for "Cisco". She has been sitting in a
cradle for a year more than the 2 1/2 years I have owned her. Other priorities, committments etc. When I have spent $10-15,000 on her she may be worth $65-70,000. I don't think any VDS 34 is worth more than about $85,000. If one is priced higher than that it probably has too much
gear on board and is why it is for
sale.
Composite timber and steel construction is something I would be very cautious about. All construction materials and methods have their merits and
maintenance drawbacks. As long as a vessel has been properly constructed and MAINTAINED other criteria become more important.