Quote:
Originally Posted by sailaway21
Leave steel wrench laying in the bilge of one and a few months later there's a wrench shaped hole in the hull. You have to be very meticulous about dissimilar metals with aluminum for your hull and that creates a tendency to give steel the nod, despite the weight savings of aluminum. And, as Dog alludes, deterioration can occur quickly. Also, ever weld aluminum? There's a bit of an art to it and most welders do not possess it.
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Yes if the bilge is wet and you leave steel, or even worse copper, in contact with the hull you will get corrosion. A wrench would not poke a hole in the hull in months but eventually it could and certainly you would see some damage in months.
Aluminium boats overcome these problems in many ways. The simplest is not to leave your wrench in the bilge! Ovnis solve the problem by painting the inside. (You would have a hole in a steel yacht with or without the wrench if it was left unpainted). The most common and easiest solution is to keep the bilge dry, this is easy to do on an aluminium boat as the deck and fittings don’t get the leaks fiberglass boats suffer from.
I agree about the welding dont buy an aluminium boat unless you know it was built by a professional builder who knows how to weld.