The perfect Passagemaker? II (building material)

First, my wife wants another powercat, 33-40'

We are designing 60' 'luxury expedition powercat' now, in FRP; can post some pictures? Of course it is for tropics, not for roaring forties.

 

SRP - Steel reinforced plastic.

Does not fit in any of your categories, but should be a considered choice.

Upside includes:

Less maintenance than a steel or aluminum hull, stronger than most other composites.

Will withstand repeated impacts, better than other materials.

Downside, much more labor intensive to build.

 

No Cats for me thanks! And no FRP too....


darr,

thank you, but no plastic, no matter which, or how. Don´t ask me for the reasons please.

Regards
Richard

 

I knew Richard You won't like it; anyway some pictures are here:
http://www.boatdesign.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/17975
http://www.boatdesign.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/17976

 

Plastic is a bit of a misnomer, actually a polyester based composite that has similar strength and flexability to aluminum that is used to encapsulate a steel armature.

 

No doubt a attractive design Albert. but.........

... you know my biased opinion.

In short: a nightmare.
At least does it sound like being one. (I am not familiar with that method)

A well executed, Epoxy encapsulated steel hull has no maintenance problems (in fact less than a polyester hull).
The same is valid for a aluminium hull (underwater).

Regards
Richard

 

Really,

Perhaps you should keep a bit more of an open mind.

I know of several constructed in this way that are as sound as the day they were launched over 30 years ago. And I have personally inspected many of them.

In fact to date we are not aware of any hulls constructed with our material that have had any structural failures involving any nightmares as you describe, and the first ones were built over 40 years ago.

Are you willing to take our maul challenge with your proposed building material?

The challenge

Both parties sign binding agreements to the following:

I will give you the opportunity to swing a 20 lb maul at any point near or below the waterline on one of our hulls just as hard as you can.

I get the same opportunity on yours.

Both hulls then get put back in the water without benefit of any repairs.

Confidence is not worrying about things that go bump in the night.

 

Are you aware of the materials I use building my boats? The material/s we are talking here are not my proposals!

In all seriousness, I would be interested what exactly makes your composite so good?
Polyester can not be the stuff imho, it is one of the weakest materials one can find in boatbuilding.

But maybe I can learn something?

 

Apex1,

I did not mean to steal the thread, how do I move the Fer-A-Lite discussion.

Still waiting to hear about your material though!

 

Fer-A-Lite posts split to their own thread here as requested: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/materials/fer-lite-34473.html

 

A Big Thanks

Thanks for the assist Jeff!

 

The former problem is solved.

The second: be a bit patient, none of us is online 24/7

I am building mainly in wood epoxy composites up to 105ft (a look at my Gallery shows some examples), above that FRP is used. I closed down my steel building yard in November.

The boats we are talking here will be build in Steel/Al. according to the poll result.

And we are talking only about these boats here.

So, lets discuss further about the material you promote on the related thread please.

Thanks Jeff for cleaning up!

Richard

 

That was a clear result. Thank you all!

Further votes or opinions are still welcome though.

Regards
Richard

 

What kind of thrust bearings, shafts etc... would you be using.

 

On which boat?