Ferrocement to strengthen / waterproof inside of steel hull

I missed the important detail about the hull being ~100 years old.
Great advice.

The OP has a dream like we all do, but rasorinc's advice should not only be noted, but heeded in earnest. Don't give up the dream, just look for a better platform on which to build it.

 

@Rasorinc & tomas
I too am worried that not enough of the hull is left over. There's the age, electrolysis damage, etc.

However, I'm not just going to dismiss the boat out of hand.
I do want to check the boat myself and take an ultrasonic thickness gauge with me to make a "map" of the hull thickness. Say, in the admittedly unlikely event, that we have a minimum thickness of 4 mm, the small holes I find are not too deep and someone more professional than I also thinks it's viable.
Would you still just dismiss it and just look for another boat that will cost at least 20,000 euros and probably more?

If still doesn't work out and I don't buy it, it's just been a very interesting learning experience and I'll have a better knowledge base for the next time I come across an interesting boat.

 

Visit Boat

Hi everyone,

Due to a long holiday directly after visiting the boat, I'm a bit late in answering. I hope you don't mind.

The inside of the boat looks like it needs some maintenance but is otherwise in a reasonable condition and the roof has recently been replaced. But immediately when I saw it I noticed quite a few spots on the outside of the hull where paint was missing or where rust spots were showing through. After descending into the inside of the hull I saw that there was still water between the framework. After dipping my hands in, the bottom felt flaky and I could grab large 2 cm^2 flakes of rust.

It was indeed a charming old boat, but after all I've read and heard, I realised this would be a difficult and very expensive journey.

So it was even worse than I thought and I've decided not to buy it.
Thanks everyone again for the advice and for everything I've learned from your posts. I appreciate the sincere effort.

If I'm able to download the photos from my camera (someone took my SD card, so I had to store it on the flash ROM of the camera itself), I'll post them online.