When does Steel Make Sense?

I'm not trying to provoke the ire of the wood boat builders out there, nor do I have the temerity to post this on woodenboat.com, but I was looking at some of George Buehler's designs, especially the Diesel Ducks, which seem to lend themselves to steel and I started to wonder, at what point does it make sense to build with steel instead of wood? Does it happen at a certain size or for operating under certain conditions? I would think I would be more attracted to working with wood, but when you get right down to it, how much wooden boat building is really woodwork? Multiple coats of epoxy both sides, fiberglass and epoxy, sometimes both sides, sand forever, prime, paint, etc., etc., etc.. Is working with steel significantly more difficult/ expensive? Mostly just wondering. I really like the look of those Diesel Ducks, though Buehler seems to only find room for only two people on a 40' boat.

 

Steel boats make sense when you hit something hard, or very hard, or go aground in a pounding surf etc. They are definitely more likely to be salvageable. We all know it is better not to get in to these situations, but if the worst happens, it is handy to have that extra survivability.

 

Steel boats are heavy.... Small heavy boats rarely perform well. Small boats made of thin plate steel to compensate seldom have a happy, low maintenance service life. If you're a welder with a pile of steel plate out back..go for it... with good craftsmanship and attention to detail , steel works .

If you re starting from scratch ,consider another build material for small craft. Epoxy, plywood or strip and cloth is well proven , lightweight with many inexpensive, well drawn plans available for amateur build.

To produce a good steel boat....Have no doubt that the build process will be total sensory assault... cut, weld, grind, sandblast, prime fair, prime fair, prime fair........all with steel slivers in your shoes.

 

steel is a good idea, it needs less skill & is much stronger

 

Less skill ???? Sorry...I wont agree. Ive been working with metal boats all my life. Very high Attention to detail during the build and fit out are needed to produce a durable long service life metal boat. Stray electricity, dissimilar metals, poor coating adhesion....the list is long. Plastic is very tolerant of poor craftsmanship and poor maintenance.

Steel requires high tool up investment...plastic boats can be built with a grinder, sandpaper and common hardware store tools and supplies.

Im presently preparing to haul a well built metal boat for bottom sanblasting ,epoxy prime and superstructure refinishing....the cost will make your eyes bulge. This maintenance cycle is repeated every 5 to ten years on a metal boat...never on a plastic boat.

 

The following small tragedy took place here last week.

An enthusiastic young fisherman decides to take a major step towards a brighter future, applies for a $ 45000 loan from a local bank and buys an 11 years old 26 ft fishing boat with radar, navigation, hydraulic winches and almost 2 miles of nets.
He doesn't yet have a suitable mooring, so he temporarily uses an empty spot on the small crafts jetty, next to the new speedboat of a dubious villager without legal income, suspected of involvement in several criminal activities.

Last Saturday at sunrise, the speedboat lies at the opposite shore, reduced to a wreck and still smoldering. Shortly thereafter, the hull of the fishing boat is reported several miles out at sea, totally burnt out.

According to the preliminary police report, the fire started in the speedboat and the fishing boat was collateral damage. There are still several unanswered questions, like who did it and why the fishing boat was found so far away from its berth while the tide had been rising.

The young guy now has debt he can never repay and no insurance, so no boat.

Steel would have made sense.

 

I used to see it but not so much now, businesses with a bit of land available and welding gear make themselves a steel boat.

They make the hull and there it sits year after year.

I can only assume that when they finish the hull, it needs sand blasting and painting.

But here sand blasting laws don't allow you to sand blast outdoors unless you make a tent over the site and it then becomes a very expensive exercise.

Besides that steels too heavy it will never float.

 

If you obey every law on the books to the letter ( re sandblasting in this case ) you will do your head in. Apply a bit of commonsense, make sure the dobbers are on holiday and away you go.

 

I personally cant see any advantage to steel for a small craft. Big boats....70 ft plus medium displacement , yes.

If you must build metal...choose aluminum for small craft, have the components pre cut...then asseble. You will get a durable small craft .

 

I guess steel with less carbon, heading in the direction of pure iron, would not be so prone to rapidly reverting to the oxidised state. Trouble is strength goes down with decreasing carbon. I know the old soft corrugated iron didn't rust likes its 'springy' modern counterpart.

 

excuse me, i did'nt mean less skill than plastic

 

I'm not sure about that, CDK. If the boat was so close to the fire, it would probably start to burn anyways, because of the temperature rise in the cabin. he The steel structure would act like a mirror for the radiant heat, reflecting it back inside the cabin, and the heat buildup would soon make wooden furniture, lining and other flammable stuff catch fire.
Just think about cases of fire on-board steel cruise ships - it's impressive how big and extensive the damage can be and how difficult it is for firefighters to put the fire under control.

The only solution, in this case, is not to have anything to do with certain kind of people...

 

Even parking next to them.

As the Cargolaw guys say, Ship Happens!

 

To me steel makes sense only when the use/abuse the vessel is going to receive in the performance of her duties would wreck other building materials (tugs, barges, icebreakers and fishing boats): the operating environment is particularly hostile (ice, high probability for hard and repeated grounding in less than nice weather on a less than nice shore, and even then steel might not survive in all cases): the vessels size does not permit the feasible use of other materials: warships (excluding mine ships, that should properly be made with as little metal as possible.)

These are a few of my opinions and I'm sure someone will point out that there are 90+year old wood tugs and a good many wood and fiberglass fishing boats around and fishing, however I was not talking longliners sieners and the like, more trawlers, dredgers, and other trap fisheries boats, whose gear would really damage other materials.

On a note related to CDK's post about the small tragedy I've seen fire sweep across a portion of the local fishing fleet and severely damage 7 or 8 boats so I don't think the comment on the steel hull makes them any more or less resistant when tied next to a vessel on fire just possibly more likely to be salvageable. I've also seen a kind of comical small tragedy a good few years ago.....3 scallop boats were rafted to a single mooring out in the harbor all 3 were being extensively overhauled (read hatches open) when the middle vessel began to really take water, putting enough list on the other two to just barely submerge the accesses to the crews accommodations and soon they too were on the bottom. very interesting to watch as it was Sunday and there was no one aboard yet, all three were soon re floated to finish their over hauls and back to service. (that last part had nothing to do with steel hull or not as 1 was an old woody and she was like her steel cousins non to worse for the wear....

 

An old friend of mine who was an insurance broker said the only thing that probably needs no fire insurance is a concrete slab under water, but he advised to insure it anyhow.

In the case mentioned there would have been extensive damage to the wheelhouse of a steel boat and all the nylon nets on deck would be gone, but there would at least have been a hull and an engine left.
Now the nets accelerated the fire, then the deck caved in, exposing the three fuel tanks and the large Iveco turbo diesel.
The only salvageable items are the bronze prop and a large stainless hydraulic winch that lost its foothold when the deck burned, so it dropped overboard in an early stage.