Well, virtually all steel trawlers are custom built such as the Diesel Duck and similar. No production builder that I know of builds in steel. As a result steel trawlers are very expensive. There are some exceptions like some converted fishing trawlers, but you have to look hard and carefully at those.
...
David
Diesel Ducks made by Seahorse are much cheaper than fiberglass boats of similar size. I don't know what a new Nordhavn costs, but the used ones are about double the price of a new steel hulled Seahorse Diesel Duck. I would consider a Seahorse a production builder not custom.
The critical issue with steel is the INTERIOR hull prep to prevent rust. Now a days, most builders I have read about are using 2-3 coats of epoxy paint topped by insulation, mostly closed cell foam or maybe a flexible sheet foam product glued to the interior hull. The epoxy paint is to protect the metal from rust and the insulation, beside making the boat more comfortable, is to protect the epoxy paint and to keep condensation from forming on the hull.
I know of Diesel Ducks that have sat on a reef for a couple of weeks because the captain/owner made the wrong turn in a tricky, poorly marked channel. Another hit an iceberg and the boat rose six inches out of the water before backing down. Another Duck had the current with the boat and was doing around 13 knots when the boat hit a rock. In these cases, the hull was not damaged. I just don't see how a wood or fiberglass boat could have survived these incidents.
There is an aluminum hulled sail boat whose owner is on CF. The boat has been in his family for decades, I think close to 40-50 years. That boat hit a log raft in the PNW one night while going at a pretty good speed. They just backed the boat off the logs and kept on going. No damage.
One of the Dashew FPB's hit a huge tree off of New Zealand. They had no damage even though it sounded like an explosion when the boat hit the tree at about 10 knots. They were very worried about their active stabilization fins but they got lucky and the tree did not hit them.
There was a guy whose family had a steel hulled boat, I think down in Australia, and the boat had a galley fire that they could not put out. They sealed the hatches and made best speed to port where the fire was put out. The family made some temporary repairs and went back boating a week or so later.
The boat was not a Diesel Duck and I think I read this on one of the metal boat building websites.
One design/build point missing from many boats, which I find appalling, is water tight compartments. The Seahorse Ducks have multiple water tight compartments, which at a minimum, would provide the crew more time to abandon the boat if it was sinking or on fire. Most likely, the compartments would prevent the boat from sinking. My 17 foot long sea kayak has two watertight compartments for goodness sake, it is unreal to me that more boats do not have water tight compartments. Course that is not a hull material issue. My kayak is kevlar and fiberglass but it has watertight compartments. :lol: Methinks a steel kayak would be a wee bit heavy and hard to lift on the truck.
Though I always wondered about an aluminum kayak.
Later,
Dan
