Ferro Cement hulls

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ksanders

ksanders

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I was wondering...

I occasionally hear about Ferro Cement boats, but have never actually seen one. Do they really exist except in a backyard bosat builders imagination? Has any professional outfit ever made one?

Is this a material to consider for a ocean going boat?

It is interesting reading about the technology though...
 
There are about five of them in the area. Most of them Samson hulls. All from the 70's. Two of them are live aboard. One up in Lund is a trawler.
 
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I've seen one of the very first Kadey-Krogen that Art Kadey built and lived in way back when in Coconut Grove. It is currently laid up in Marathon Florida and undergoing a resurrection of sorts. Interesting book. and under going a resurrection of sorts. Interesting boat.

Yeah they exist. That's the only trawler I've seen with a ferrocement hull though.
 
I remember a guy building a ferrocement boat in his backyard in Orlando Florida back in the 70's and 80's. We used to drive by the guys house and you could see the boat in the back yard. I heard he did finish the boat and launched it. Have no idea about the boat specifications or if the boat was a good build or not. But the guy did it. :thumb:

I have read some references to ferrocement boats on Cruising Forum.

Later,
Dan
 
I've been on 2, both sailboats. One was a 50' Samson hull and the other was a build from NZ. I was on the NZ boat 4 or 5 times before I was told it was ferro cement. The hull was as true as any high end FG boat as was the interior finish. Talking to the builder/owner, when it was built, it was done continuously. The last I heard the boat was in England.
 
A quick look on Yachtworld came up with many FC sailboats, including a number of Samson builds, and at least one trawler.

There was a mid fifty foot FC trawler type for sale somewhere in the southern area of Vancouver Island within the last two years that apparently was well done, according to a friend who gave it a good look. It was a Seaton design.

Anyway, here is the YW listing:

1973 Port McNiel Shipyard Trawler Power Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com
 
Conrad said:
A quick look on Yachtworld came up with many FC sailboats, including a number of Samson builds, and at least one trawler.

There was a mid fifty foot FC trawler type for sale somewhere in the southern area of Vancouver Island within the last two years that apparently was well done, according to a friend who gave it a good look. It was a Seaton design.

Anyway, here is the YW listing:

1973 Port McNiel Shipyard Trawler Power Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com
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Yep, I did a search and found only two ferro cement power boats with diesel engines for sale un the USA.

That one was one of them.
 
In the early 70's, that's all the boating mags would write about, kind of like pod drives now. You see them now and then laying in the backs of boatyards, huge, gray, and without windows and ports.
 
High Wire said:
In the early 70's, that's all the boating mags would write about, kind of like pod drives now. You see them now and then laying in the backs of boatyards, huge, gray, and without windows and ports.
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You are so correct! I have several boat building books from the 70s and ferro cement was defintiely the rage then! I've seen several unfinished hulls but have only viewed one (a sailboat) on the water and that was many years ago.
 
I've known a couple sailboats and 4 or 5 commercial trollers over the years.
A lot depends on the builder (this is new?) as to quality.
They did the job and seemed to last.

Ted
 
We've had three or four of them on our dock over the years. All were sailboats. One was a 70' ketch that for years was lived on by its owners and was used in dinner cruise and island charter work. The interior of that boat was gorgeous.

Another was a very nice double-ended sloop of about 40' in length that the owner lived on for a number of years. He eventually had to move to California in search of work. I don't know what became of the boat.
 
I know of at least 3 that cruised the south pacific for years. Those were gorgeous sailboats. The hulls were fair enough that you really could mistake them for fibreglass. OTOH, I recall several built by lesser craftsmen that wouldn't hold fairing compound or paint, so looked as though their next stop would be the landfill.
 
Had a friend that built one back in the 80's it was a 65' schooner and absolutely gorgeous. Ships carpenters spent 2 years on the interior. She was fast and classic....
 
IIRC ferro was the rage at the time because it was a cheap way to build a hull. Thing is, building the hull is probably only 20-25% of the total boat cost. As the owners, or particularly the builders, of the beautiful ferro boats mentioned above will tell you.

One result was that back yards had these things half finished in them. Half finished usually because time and cost of build exceeded initial expectations. They were invariably sailboats, typically large (because its cheap to build from a materials perspective, we can make it large!).

Ferro is not alone there though! Many home builds are finished by someone other than the person who started the build. So back yards had semi-abandoned monsters in them that were difficult and expensive to move. By the mid 80's house rental contracts here in SE Queensland often had a clause prohibiting building a ferro in the backyard.

A couple of cons are: firstly insurance. It can be very difficult to find an underwriter who will accept it. Whilst you may not care, you do need insurance to stay in most marinas. Secondly, hitting something like a dock hard can result in very difficult effective (versus cosmetic) repairs. Salt water working its way along the armature (and rusting it) in such cases is likely a key reason the insurer's balk.
 
I think this is FC.
I don't remember when I first saw it but it has been there for a long time.
I walk by it every day and although I have never heard or seen anyone, I think things have changed over time.

Roche Point may know more.
Damn...sideways again, what am I doing wrong?
 

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Insequent said:
IIRC ferro was the rage at the time because it was a cheap way to build a hull. Thing is, building the hull is probably only 20-25% of the total boat cost. As the owners, or particularly the builders, of the beautiful ferro boats mentioned above will tell you.


Absolutely agree - luckily not from personal experience. Ferro boats were all the rage - soooo cheap to build - BUT - the things that aren`t cheap are all the bits that go in and on the hull - engine, mast, rigging sails etc etc etc this is where the back yarders hit the wall financially.
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In the 60s and early 70s in the UK on the Norfokl Broads a company built and rented out an entire fleet of FC river cruisers , most are still afloat many in private ownership , these craft have a life MUCH harder with continual abuse from rookie operators , in fact we were considering purchasing 1 if we had returned to live. They look like high end Fibreglass up close and can be painted , blistering is not an issue or osmosis.We have seen a couple of larger vessels on the Europian canal systems and they were lovely with nice lines.I would own a FC vessel any day without any worries although it is very rare to see one in North America.:thumb:
 
I've seen a few FC yachts around and heard lots of horror stories about them. The only one I've seen that went bad was in North Queensland a long time ago. The cement was falling out of a section of the bow leaving a hole about three feet across and all the rusty reinforcing was exposed. I can't remember exactly what happened to it but wouldn't want to go sailing on her. Here is a nice looking FC ketch
 
I saw a 45'er being built as a kid on Martha's Vineyard. I would go talk to the builder as he lathed on the cement area by area. It took him about two years to form up, rebar and plaster the cement on. It took him about 10 more years to finish her and rig her. One Nor'easter night she went up on the shore. Got two relatively small cracks in the hull. It was u repairable. Hauled, bulldozed, in the dump.

Saw ain't the same thing about 20 years later to another ferro boat. Minimal Keel damage, unrepairable, junked the boat.

Moral of the story. Stay away from ferro cement even if the price is low. They are unfixable.
 
cappy208 said:
I saw a 45'er being built as a kid on Martha's Vineyard. I would go talk to the builder as he lathed on the cement area by area. It took him about two years to form up, rebar and plaster the cement on. It took him about 10 more years to finish her and rig her. One Nor'easter night she went up on the shore. Got two relatively small cracks in the hull. It was u repairable. Hauled, bulldozed, in the dump.

Saw ain't the same thing about 20 years later to another ferro boat. Minimal Keel damage, unrepairable, junked the boat.

Moral of the story. Stay away from ferro cement even if the price is low. They are unfixable.
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This is a good example of why fc boats get a bad rap..most deserve it. A properly done fc hull is " plastered" in one setting.. non stop.. then covered with a tent and steamed or humidifed depending on temperature for around 3 weeks..few were done this way.
Also it is incorrect that a fc hull cannot be repaired..but it has to be done properly.

As Refugio has no doubt found out fc hulls are very dry, quiet and very tough.

The two real issues are insurability and resale value.

Hollywood
 
"The two real issues are insurability and resale value."

AS well as the impossibility of a hull survey.
 
I can really relate to most of the above comments. Done properly, they can be excellent hulls, but with certain unique issues as mentioned. Insurance and retail being the main ones. However, as others have mentioned, the seduction of the relative cheapness of the hull, was often the undoing of the owner builder, because they went big, forgetting the remainder of the fit-out is the main expense, which is why so may take forever - if ever - to finish and splash.

A perfect example is a relative of mine, who built a beautiful Sampson Seastrutter 55 in this way. He started it about the same time we bought our first boat, a 20 foot trailer yacht, back in 1979, when I was in my 30s, and our kids quite young. I am now of retirement age, into our 4th boat, and as far as I know, it is still not finished, and it cost him a marriage.
Not for the faint hearted or financially challenged that's for sure.
 
From Tad Roberts:
"The beauty of FC is that a properly built hull is basically inert, it might just last forever. The Powell River breakwater ships are still floating, they were built in the second world war and have had no maintenance in at least 40 years....."
 
So if built properly, a FC hull is better than other material? Fiberglass blisters, steel rusts, aluminum can suffer from electrolysis and wood rots. What are the negatives of a well built FC hull?
 
"Fiberglass blisters"

Poorly done GRP may blister , there are many GRP boats that have never even had a single pimple.

"steel rusts"

only with an owner that does not own a wire brush and a paoil of paint

"aluminum can suffer from electrolysis "

As can the bronze ounderwater goodies on any boat

"wood rots"

Not if its kept dry,

What are the negatives of a well built FC hull

One big one is weight , most come out at 13lbs per sq ft , a wood or GRP of similar size would be about 3 lbs / sq ft.
 
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