High Tensile Steel for boat building

Is High Tensile steel more easy to work on and lighter, would we use less material if we convert from mild steel to HTS?

 

Hi water babies, HTS is harder to work with, [ can be a real mongrel with compound curves ] it's only lighter, if it's a lighter gauge, you'd use the same square meters naturally, but the boat would be lighter.
HTS is more brittal, less ductile - which could lead to stress fractures, especially if one happens to bounce on a reef oneday !!.
It's a no no to " patch " HTS with mild steel [ you would in an emergency ] so having bounced across said reef, it may be hard to find maching material localy to efect a "proper " repair.
You'd most likely use low hydrogen welding rods, which definately require more skill to use .
I think, with the thinner gauge [ if you used it ] you'd be more prone to distortion throughout the hull .
corten has a higher copper content & after some initial rust, will rust slower [ but who wants a rusty boat [ unless you like to scare off other, shall we say, fragile boats ! . LOL ]

 

corten

Corten or "Cor-Ten", Corrostion resistance Ten, was developed with boatbuilding in mind and is used often for it.

Like aluminum it forms a layer of corrosion rapidly that protects the steel below it. Rust stains are not nice on a boat but when build of corten these stains will not grow as rapidly as with normal steel. Reparing the paint job will only be necessary for aesthetic reasons.

 

What about Cor-Ten compare with mild steel on it ability to survive a hit or bounce?

 

Just rang my engineering buddy to yak about Cor-ten, which he uses often for truck decks & the like.
We are both of the opinion that Cor-ten is a Medium tensile steel [ as opposed to high tensile, or mild steel] and we know it to be much stronger.
In New Zealand it's only slightly dearer than mild steel, about 20 $30 per sheet.
3mm Cor-ten seems [ I say seems as this is our experience, not calculations from an engineer ] to have about the same strength as 4mm mild steel.

So why wouldn't you use it in place of mild steel ?? ---- given that, and [in my opinion] answer to your question , it's stronger and therfore more able to withstand an impact / bounce .

Ahoy you teco engineering types, any problem with you're aware of, joining, say cor-ten decks to mild steel hull ?? , electrolisis ? --- I think I'll post this ? elsewhere as well to get an answer. I'm about to build new decks on an exsisting mild steel hull .
I stand by my opinion regards to high tensile - brittle, work hardens - no thanks.
Pete.