Is it difficult to sell a steel boat?

I wonder how this will go over? Some see rust as an issue? I see a lot of rusty trollers at Fishermans terminal in Seattle.

Is it more difficult to sell steel vs wood vs plastic?

Assuming we are talking a boat below 60', there are far fewer people that would consider steel compared to fiberglass. The same is true for wood compared to fiberglass. Not sure whether more people would consider steel or wood. Once you get above 60', likely steel gets closer to fiberglass in acceptance and wood drifts even further away from both.

Ted

Steel Hull

I had a steel 65' Army T Boat. 125,000 pounds. If you can cut steel, weld, grind , sand blast and coat with anti corrosive coating they will last decades. The North Sea is full of steel vessels. You can dent them and ground out and get away with it, but most are not a thing of beauty. More for rough use. Look at the Hollenders vessel and DeVies model for nice looking well made boats.

dhmeissner said:

I wonder how this will go over? Some see rust as an issue? I see a lot of rusty trollers at Fishermans terminal in Seattle.

Is it more difficult to sell steel vs wood vs plastic?

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The key words I picked up in your post were "rusty trollers". For those, there is virtually no market. As Diver said, in small boats, the buyers just aren't looking for steel and consider it to be high maintenance vs. fiberglass, although not as high maintenance as wood. They typical boat buyer of under 50' boats is wanting one they can hop in and go. Also, many are moving up from smaller boats and all they are use to is fiberglass.

That said, if I was looking new and wanted a trawler type boat, then I'd strongly consider steel.

You didn't mention aluminum and it falls somewhere in between in terms of maintenance. However, many buyers in the small boat market associate it with cheap boats, not with megayachts, so not as quality. In a range we were looking there is an aluminum boat. Great design. Good performance. But I couldn't convince myself to go for it.

For the serious and well heeled blue water cruisers, Dashew's all Al vessels have no shortage of buyers. A trip to his website is a good tutorial on the pros and cons of various build materials.

Whether sail or his MVs, the Al boats are stunning, unless of course you are looking for accolades on dockside appearance from the party boaters.

I did consider a steel 48foot boat this year the boat was around 1/2 the price of fiberglass and half the age of other fiberglass boats I have looked at the hull had beautiful clean lines and came with a very good survey .The engine room was enormous was told this was only possible with steel ? The turn off to me was the superstructure and living area left me cold due everything been made of steel it was unpleasant to sit on and touch it was more like a glorified fishing boat not a pleasure craft for this reason alone my decision was made not to purchase a steel boat

"Is it hard to sell a steel boat?" I would have to answer that question as a big YES as far as I am concerned. I have had mine about 10 or 12 years and have listed it once. I received several offers and did not negotiate then pulled it off the market because at that time I just could not part with her. I enjoy the engine room space, the rounded canoe stern, her seaworthiness, righting properties, and her layout. I have learned to appreciate her forgiveness if running in shallow waters. I have found competent labor and materials for repair work in the most remote locations of the world. I love her stability and the way she handles around the dock, air draft has never been an issue.

I am starting to wear out a lot sooner than my boat and I know that health issues will make me part with her very soon, but it will be very difficult to do so. So yes, once again it is hard to sell a steel boat.

ulysses said:

"Is it hard to sell a steel boat?" I would have to answer that question as a big YES as far as I am concerned. I have had mine about 10 or 12 years and have listed it once. I received several offers and did not negotiate then pulled it off the market because at that time I just could not part with her. I enjoy the engine room space, the rounded canoe stern, her seaworthiness, righting properties, and her layout. I have learned to appreciate her forgiveness if running in shallow waters. I have found competent labor and materials for repair work in the most remote locations of the world. I love her stability and the way she handles around the dock, air draft has never been an issue.

I am starting to wear out a lot sooner than my boat and I know that health issues will make me part with her very soon, but it will be very difficult to do so. So yes, once again it is hard to sell a steel boat.

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Nice post, thanks and all the best to you.

I can understand the difficulties in selling such a beautiful "steel boat".

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Selling Steel is LOCATION , LOCATION , LOCATION just like real estate.

Ship your smaller steel boat over to a steel loving area like Euroland and it will sell far faster and at a good enough price to pay for the shipping.

FF said:

Selling Steel is LOCATION , LOCATION , LOCATION just like real estate.

Ship your smaller steel boat over to a steel loving area like Euroland and it will sell far faster and at a good enough price to pay for the shipping.

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I doubt that it would sell for enough. You have to consider shipping of over $50,000 plus tax would be 17% or so. For a boat selling for $200,000 or less that would be hard to recover.

Could always cruise across the Atlantic and then sell it there.

"You have to consider shipping of over $50,000 plus tax would be 17% or so."

You cant get away from the tax man but dealing directly with a boat captain can lower the deck cargo cost by 90%.

Steel boats are simply held up with simple pipe struts welded to the carriers deck.

To be safe the owner must travel with the boat , or the interior may be stripped.

Crew making $2.00 a day will find everything that could be gifted or sold a great deal.

FF said:

"

To be safe the owner must travel with the boat , or the interior may be stripped.

Crew making $2.00 a day will find everything that could be gifted or sold a great deal.

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I don't know where you got the idea that the boat will be "stripped", I for one HAVE ACTUALLY shipped my own boat across the ocean as deck cargo and not one thing was touched, the companionway door was left unlocked for emergency purposes.

Also in this day of shipping it would be next to impossible to ever get to negotiate with a captain as the ships almost never sit on the dock for a day and the logistics to ship a boat typically take a couple weeks to deal with.. so strolling up and chatting to the captain of a 1000' container ship about hauling your boat to wherever would be slim to none.
HOLLYWOOD

Hollywood: First you would need your TWIC to get on the dock.

Tramp steamer days of old maybe. These days agents, customs and port security issues are going to make that next to impossible.

"Tramp steamer days of old maybe. These days agents, customs and port security issues are going to make that next to impossible"

Panama still exists.As does many smaller ports that are serviced by smaller boats , not 8000TEU box boats.

FF said:

"Tramp steamer days of old maybe. These days agents, customs and port security issues are going to make that next to impossible"

Panama still exists.As does many smaller ports that are serviced by smaller boats , not 8000TEU box boats.

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And you make one of those side deals and you may just be saying goodbye to your boat forever. Enough people have had to pay the second time to recover their boat from ship arrest while using what they thought was a legitimate shipper. Let's see you get insurance for such a deal.

The last time I made it down to Panama and visited both sides it was pretty much a state of the art port city. Computer driven loadings and off loadings. What many people do not realize is that there is just about as much container / intermodal freight off loaded from ships then loaded on trains to transit to the other side as there is on ships. I doubt that the old capt. would be allowed to pick up extra freight at his discretion in the two major ports of Panama.

ulysses said:

The last time I made it down to Panama and visited both sides it was pretty much a state of the art port city. Computer driven loadings and off loadings. What many people do not realize is that there is just about as much container / intermodal freight off loaded from ships then loaded on trains to transit to the other side as there is on ships. I doubt that the old capt. would be allowed to pick up extra freight at his discretion in the two major ports of Panama.

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And if an old captain did so he would clearly be operating outside the law, which simply means zero protection for you.

Back on July 31st I posted an ad here for a beautiful 54' steel hull trawler. There have been 848 views of the ad but not a single inquiry from TF. I year ago I posted an ad for a 54' Sparkman and Stevens design fiberglass trawler and it sold to a TF reader within three months.

One thing about aluminum and steel boats, is that plate can be bent around one axis, it can be bent around another axis, but not both at the same time. Well it can, but it takes a hell of a lot of heat or force to do it. Very hard to make pleasant curves. With plate, you end up with slab sides and hard chines. To do curves, plate must be formed or contour cut and welded in thinner strips.

That's why lots of steel and al boats are a bit ugly. To make them pretty is not easy.

Ski in NC said:

One thing about aluminum and steel boats, is that plate can be bent around one axis, it can be bent around another axis, but not both at the same time. Well it can, but it takes a hell of a lot of heat or force to do it. Very hard to make pleasant curves. With plate, you end up with slab sides and hard chines. To do curves, plate must be formed or contour cut and welded in thinner strips.

That's why lots of steel and al boats are a bit ugly. To make them pretty is not easy.

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To make them beautiful is harder still; 2010 Custom Dutch Barge Power Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

Ski in NC said:

That's why lots of steel and al boats are a bit ugly. To make them pretty is not easy.

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But then beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I've known people who have fallen in love with one, only to turn away when they discovered it was steel.

Smooth round bilges in 1/4" thick plate are perfectly possible. It requires a degree of skill which is not very common now days. But it can be done.
Without heat and without cutting the plate in numerous tiny pieces.
I hope the picture comes out.

This is maybe a better view from the bow.

BryanF said:

Smooth round bilges in 1/4" thick plate are perfectly possible. It requires a degree of skill which is not very common now days. But it can be done.
Without heat and without cutting the plate in numerous tiny pieces.
I hope the picture comes out.

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DANG! That's purdy!!

That is indeed well done plate forming!!! Kudos. How did you form the plates?

Ski- Florence was designed and built by George Sutton, launched in 1964. I think she was probably one of the last of his boats built in New Port Beach California as he moved to Tarpon Springs Florida in 1965. She was custom finished for Jay Stoddard the then mayor of New Port Beach.
I think that the boat was built very much like a wood boat from a table of offsets (which I have) her frames built and stringers run then plated. Each piece would be tack welded and then bent into place with wedges and come alongs. It is possible that a large english wheel could be used to shape plate but I have not heard of anyone doing a steel boat that way.
Smooth curves are a matter of practice and taking your time. George Sutton grew up in Portland Oregon building steel boats with is father and brother. After the death of his brother in a welding accident George moved to New Port Beach and built steel boats there for a number of years. In 1965 he moved to Tarpon Springs and built boats there until his death in ( I think) 1988.
Pictures are of the book on Florence A and the yellow sheet is the hand written table of offsets.

Well done indeed. But the only way to get a compound curve is either to heat or beat, come alongs won't do it. Rosebuds and hammers will!!!

Ski in NC said:

Well done indeed. But the only way to get a compound curve is either to heat or beat, come alongs won't do it. Rosebuds and hammers will!!!

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Large press brake and an artists touch?