Steel dinghies

[Milan]

I was away for a few days, sorry for late answers.

Plating overlaps are about 2 - 3 centimeters, (around 1 inch). Distance between rivets was about 3 cm. Ribs were L profile bars spaced at about 25 - 30 cm from each other. There where no stringers. Rivets were classical, type which need two guys for riveting. All together, not really advisable method for an amateur builder. These boats where build in a professional boat yards, at the time when there were still a lot of skilled riveters around. If someone wants to build a boat with thin galvanized plate today, I think it would be better to try some of the newer welding technologies which I heard have less heat distortion problems then stick.

Rust - it is indeed one of the main disadvantages of the steel. In the fresh water, steel brush and ordinary household oil based paints offer enough protection for a very long life. In the salt water sand blasting followed by a few layers of epoxy tar cowered by some compatible finishing paint would do the trick.

Milan

[Pavel]

Dont know about steel dinghies, but in a spare time we have made an aluminium copy of Gerr's Nester originally designed for 1/4'' plywood with glass reinforcement. The boat is as heavy as plywood version (~60kg) (due to the strength of Alu we could save weight by reducing internal framings) but takes incredible groundings tested on rapids where the whole dinghy literally stopped on a stone several times with three people onboard. I am pretty convinced this would decapitate plywood/glass and most certainly result in a new painting scheme for steel. The boat, to our great surprise was not even dented, just a few scratches. You can look at 'still' unfinished version here:
http://www.sailjoohee.com/Building/Nestler/nestler.htm

[Skippy]

Very nice. Looks like it could use some foam...

[justin123456]

I'm having a hard time locating any info on building these steel dinghies on the internet. Any ideas where to look? all these posts are 7 years old. Thanks.

Justin