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Old 12-11-2020, 06:43 PM   #6
Snapdragon III
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City: Kenmore
Vessel Name: Snapdragon
Vessel Model: Custom 56' Skookum trawler
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 387
I have owned a few aluminum boats and I love them. In my experience they do not have corrosion issues under water if they are set up right electrically, and have well maintained epoxy barrier coat system. The place they have problems is inside the hull where standing water is allowed to collect and sit. My current boat had an area in the lazarets that was not sloped properly and a small amount of sea water would sit in the bottom which caused problems that had to be fixed with media blasting, welding, and epoxy coating. The interface right at the edge of the water and air seems especially problematic. I am also a big fan of having an aluminum boat with no exterior paint. Although watching YouTube video's of Laser cleaners, makes me think paint might not be so bad in the future, if the price of these systems comes way down. For custom one off builds, I can't believe any boat is ever made out of anything but aluminum. Welding together a few machine cut panels seems so much easier than all the mold building, tabbing, fairing, painting, etc that it would take to build a one off custom boat. Different situation if it is a production boat, and all the molds are already built and ready to go.

The other huge thing I like about aluminum boats is that so many of the deck fittings, handrails, cleats, etc can be welded on and it is very easy to have a deck with zero leaks, and no maintenance to keep it that way. And if you do have a leak, there is nothing in the deck to rot.
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