Hi, Ferro Owner Here !

[billy4184]

Hi, I'm Billy and I just came into possession of Dad's 48 foot ketch Homeaway and looking around the internet for advice I came across this site, looks like there's a few people here who not only like ferros but also know how to work on them. Though I was born onto the boat and grew up on it, there's precious little I know about fixing them because mostly it was tied up to berths and used like a house. I'd like to take her sailing and perhaps make a circumnavigation in the future but its clear it will be a lot of hard work and learning.

The boat was home built in the 70s I believe in Sydney (if you ever heard of a guy down there who cut his house in half to get his boat out its probably Dad ) so its been around a long time. As I'm sure most people agree the test of a ferro amateur build is time, and that's the main reason I feel OK about spending time and money on it. It has a reconditioned Perkins diesel from a truck which continues to amaze; after sitting in salt water for 8 months (yes the boat got half flooded ) it started with no trouble. As I said it was mostly tied up to jetty's and piles so a lot of maintenance which would have been done had it been sailing regularly was neglected.

Anyways, I'm not new to living on boats but I sure am when it comes to repairs and sailing so I looked around for a good forum. There seemed to be a few passionate ferro owners here so I signed up Looking forward to joining the boating community and learning a lot of new stuff!

cheers

[Boracay]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum.

If you can update your profile with as much information as you feel is discrete it does help answering any queries, and if you rely to a post it gives weight to your reply.

For some reason our members love photos, so if you've got a digital camera go for it.

It is advisable to resize before uploading (in Windows 7 use Resize in Paint).

And we'd love to hear more about your life as a liveaboard.

[Butler]

Welcome Billy! You can count me among those who appreciate a well made ferro boat. I know a little bit about maintaining them.

[billy4184]

Thanks for the welcome Boracay and Butler, just set up my profile this morning so I will fix it up soon. Photos too, I was planning to take some for comparison later on. I love ferro, its got a nice homely feel to it and I'm sure when I learn how to make some proper concrete the repairs will be easy as baking a cake
I lived with my family on it until I was about 15, we used to do a bit of sailing now and then but because of homeschooling it was easier to stay in one spot. Also the maritime service board down in NSW gave us plenty of s*** so it was easier to keep a low profile. As of now the boat is in Brisbane River now at the pile berths and it just gets used as cheap accomodation for me and my brother (hasn't moved in 10 years now). I recently got the dream of doing long-distance sailing and thought now is as good a time as any to give it another lease on life. If there's ferros that are still going from the 1800s theres no reason why this boat shouldn't too ;D I like the idea of having something that lasts `forever' but I know that maintenance time and money is always the issue.
I'd like to eventually sail it round the bottom of Africa to Brazil (where my Dad's from) and who knows where else.
I'm reading up on a lot of threads about ferros, I probably couldn't give much advice yet but will certainly report on my `experiments', since there's a lot of different ideas about what works and what doesn't. For cementing the windows seem like a good place to try some different things before I attack the hull itself.
Cheers

[Unicorn Dreams]

Welcome Aboard Cruisers Forum Billy

[billy4184]

Hi Unicorn Dreams and thanks!
Nice boat there, I always like to see a ketch.

[billy4184]

Hi Butler, just noticed your ketch too! That's wood isn't it? Fantastic looking boat.

[Hampus]

Very welcome!

Have a look at this site if you havn't seen it already: The World of Ferroboats

/Hampus

[smallyachts]

Hi Billy and welcome aboard.

You will find a lot of good information and advice from the members on this thread.

From reading both threads, it sounds like you are about to embark on a good adventure.

Good Luck and keep us advised!

[pdbms]

G'day. We are at Redcliffe, just north of Brisbane. If you take a look in my profile, you will see a collection of photos of our ferro. She is a Hartley Tahitian 45.

Probably a good starting point would be to slip her and water blast her bottom. When we bought ours, we slipped her for survey and did antifoul while she was up. The water blasters and 4" scrapers were sufficient to remove sea life and old antifoul. Where the water blaster took it back to bare concrete we primed. Where it didn't (previously coated with some sort of epoxy tar) we just applied antifoul. The slip we used was a trolley type. I have heard that most ferro owner prefer them over the sling type travel lifts.

Next time I am down by the gardens, I will have a look and see if I can pick her out.

[billy4184]

Thanks everyone, I'm sure its going to be great but have no doubt that many days of hard work are ahead...once she's ready for the sea then it's all going to pay off
Hi pdbms, I do want to get her out but have a lot to do first on the engine and hydraulics, like I said hasn't moved in 10 years...maybe in the summer I will but Brissie ship lifts want a fortune and we have a history with Caboolture river sandbanks, what is Scarborough like? I might head down there and check it out, is your boat on the stands? If ever you come down this way you're welcome aboard, I might be off studying a fair bit but weekends I'll probably be knuckling down. I'm interested, do you know why ferro owners like the trolley type?
Cheers

[pdbms]

Billy,

As far as I know, Scarborough uses a travel lift. The preference for ferros and trolleys may be nothing more than individual preference. The previous owner of our boat preferred it because the keel carries the weight. On a travel lift the weight is distributed over the skin. You need to ensure that the slings are positioned over a bulkhead. I would like to hear from other ferro owners on this subject.

Have you had a quote from Brisbane Ship Lifts? If so what cost was it?

Kevin

[billy4184]

Hi,
I went down on Monday, described my boat as 48 foot and 25 tons, and the answer was:
2xlift: $500
Wash: $210
Hardstand: $89 per night
Insurance is no problem

Sounds like a good way to lose a couple of grand very quickly, especially since I'm a novice at prepping a hull. Can you give me the figures for Scarborough?

I have a question for anyone with a ferro hull: I've been told that once launched, it should be out of the water an absolute minimum for cleaning etc. or rust will set it, because the salt water has infiltrated the hull and in the presence of air corrosion will be much accelerated. Is this true?

Thanks a lot

[billy4184]

Hi everyone, uploaded a few photos, enjoy

[billy4184]

Hi, I came across this study of concrete joins with and without an epoxy based bonding agent which some people might find interesting http://www.estg.ipleiria.pt/files/34...22854721fc.pdf
Cheers