BOAT BUILDING
MATERIALS
Materials
From his youthful days serving a boatbuilding apprenticeship
on the Mississippi river in St. Louis, Missouri building wood
and steel boats for inland service to the fastest boats for the
SEAL TEAM (USN) in Vietnam, Fry has had opportunity to design
and build boats in all the commonly accepted materials.
Today the common materials in use worldwide are: Wood (cold
molded), Steel, Aluminum and Fiberglass (Hand lay up or
Infusion). All the materials are limited and all have
advantages which every Owner must consider before deciding on
which is best for his project. The type of boat/yacht often
makes the determination easy. The environmental conditions and
the builder’s capability are also a big influence.
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Above carpenter prepares
the 35m hull for
fourth layer 8 x 80mm mahogany plank.
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WOOD
The oldest boats in the world
are made of wood a natural and beautiful boat
building material. In past decades the building
system called “cold molding” has replaces
traditional wood construction in most areas.
Cold molding involves using multiple lengths of
thin planks which are bonded together with
epoxy making the finished hull composite unit.
With wood there is no smell, no rust and
limited noise. The finished product is strong,
very durable and with minimum maintenance wood
is material of preference for many custom yacht
Owners.
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STEEL
For strength and durability no material is
better than steel; however, it is heavy
material and generally not the best for fast
yachts. For Motoryacht and Explorer yachts
where weight is not a penalty, steel is the
choice of most Owners’ and designers’. For a
displacement yacht steel is the most
comfortable and seaworthy material both at
anchor and underway. Maintenance on the
exterior hull is minimum. The life of the boat
is determined by the quality of the first
coating on the inside of the hull since some
areas are not accessible for maintenance. If
damaged worldwide steel repair facilities are
plentiful.
(Pictured Left) - Steel gives the designer
freedom to create (one off) custom designs, at
reasonable cost.
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Main and
bridge deck cabins for M/Y YALLA built by
Heesen Yachts
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ALUMINUM
Is an ideal material for custom building of
a fast yacht, It can be formed to the desired
styling without loss of strength or expensive
molds. The higher material is off-set by the
ease of construction so that many builders
claim the cost to be the same as steel. So for
a fast boat you give up some at anchor comfort
because of the lighter displacement and hull
design. Most steel hulls have aluminum
superstructures and doors for weight
savings.
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Above 105 ft hull easily removed from a
split mold even with 10 hard chines and lifting
strakes
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FIBERGLASS
Fiberglass hit the market in 1960 and
quickly became the best material for small
production boats where they are building
hundreds each day. Now 50 years later yachts up
to 50m (164 ft) are being built of fiberglass.
As long as Owners accept their custom yacht to
be identical to others there can be a cost
savings. If a gell coat finish is acceptable
(which rarely is above 20m 65 ft) there can be
some paint maintenance savings
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