Hull Materials

[Gramp34]

Maybe instead of looking at the material, look at the whole structure.

Professionally designed boats are designed to scantling rules, which determine the hull plating thickness, internal structure, rudder strength, etc., etc. A common one is the American Bureau of Shipping's Guide to Building and Classing Offshore Racing Yachts. It's formed the basis for ISO standard 12215 on Hull Construction and Scantlings that must be met for any boat to get CE certification and be legal for sale in Europe.

These scantling rules determine how strong a boat needs to be, then specify how to get that strength for a given material.

Two copies of the same boat can be made with different materials (with considerably different material properties), but when built to a scantling rule will end up with about the same strength or stiffness (whichever is the determining criteria).

So if the design and construction were done to a scantling rule, a particular material won't make a boat inherently unacceptable.

That's not to say you won't have a personal preference regarding maintenance needs, noise, aesthetics, cost, etc.

Walk the docks and boatyards and see how well different types of materials and construction hold up in the real world. I think you'll probably see a reasonably well built and maintained boat of any material will hold up for many decades.

Good luck,

Tim

[Sailormann]

Note to the OP (original poster): the following quote is absolutely correct.

So if the design and construction were done to a scantling rule, a particular material won't make a boat inherently unacceptable.

We all have our biases and preferences. The truth though, is that a well-built properly designed boat will sail well, be safe, and can be maintained. One a 1 to 10 scale all of the hull materials that you read of regularly score at least a 9. The final 1 point that takes a boat to a ten is something that has been debated for the last 12 centuries and that debate shows no sign of abating.

As far as used boats go - I personally would much rather buy a used hull that is a known quantity and then spend money on refit, than buy one of the current volume production boats. There are some great builders that are still going strong, but a lot of them built themselves out of business. That is to say that their boats have lasted so well that few people see the point in investing in a new boat anymore.

So take the posts on here with a grain of salt. We are a curmudgeonly bunch

[noelex77]

Originally Posted by Sailormann

No - it's not. If that were the case there would be a lot more aluminum boats out there. They are expensive to build, difficult to repair and not mass market craft.

Production boat builders generally use the least expensive hull material that will be adequate rather than the best material. Just look at the widespread use of polyester resins instead of epoxy resins in even expensive fiberglass yachts. If you want to find the cheapest not the best materials to build a hull look at production boats. You wont see many aluminium hulls just like you wont see many epoxy kevlar hulls. Unfortunately most of the boat buying public wont pay for better quality hull materials.