Quote:
wanted to learn what the life span of a fiberglass hull was.
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At this point it is mostly unknown. The fiberglass seems to last longer than any other part of the
boat. What becomes too old are all the things attached and sometimes the
skipper, though I know skippers into their 80's.
The stuff attached is really the part of the
boat that costs the most. All the
gear and
rigging and
interior and the hideous amounts of labor it takes to build a boat. A full cruising boat takes many times the man hours of a large house to build completely using specialized components that themselves take tremendous amount of labor. It's why they cost so much.
So when you are thinking of
boats you need to think in terms of the condition of everything. The process to replace everything will cost a lot more and take longer than it did to build it the first time.
Boats do become "not worth the effort" where the time and
money will eat away the value of the boat. It's not that it can't be done but that the same
money could buy a
used boat in better shape.