ferro concrete hull

[Rickent]

Anybody heard of this construction?

There is one on fleabay at the moment.

[John V]

Goes back a long long time....during the First world war they were even building coasters this way concrete nb at Gloucester by mudlarker2, on Flickr

[Guest]

Anybody heard of this construction?

There is one on fleabay at the moment.

Yes. Our First ever hire boat holiday was on a boat with such a hull in the 70's

 

Google 'windboat 26,'

Edited August 1, 2014 by The Dog House

[RLWP]

This one?:

 

 

Richard

[Rickent]

Hi john,

They must be very heavy, the one on ebay is very cheap , I assume that's because of the non standard construction.

[JohnnyHop]

I believe Rolls-Royce own one which is used for management development exercises off the Scottish coast somewhere.

 

Edit. A yacht, not a narrowboat, obviously

Edited August 1, 2014 by JohnnyHop

[RLWP]

Hi john,

They must be very heavy, the one on ebay is very cheap , I assume that's because of the non standard construction.

 

Concrete isn't particularly heavy, it's strength to weight ratio is actually quite good

 

I worked on a concrete narrowboat a couple of years ago. If I remember, the new owners got the boat complete with a cat

 

Richard

[Rickent]

Are they any better than a steel hulled boat ?

[RLWP]

Are they any better than a steel hulled boat ?

 

Probably not

 

The yard that lifted the gearbox out were terrified of doing anything that would break the hull. One of the things they particularly didn't fancy was dry docking it

 

I would hope it had a nicely formed hull

 

 

Nice looking boat

 

Richard

[Rickent]

Yes it does look nice , but I image the hull construction added to the fibreglass top may make selling it a challenge, although I may be wrong.

[John V]

On our moorings is a yacht "Barbarossa" about 50 plus feet, Over the last 20 years it's been round the world plus a couple extra Atlantic crossings, looks brilliant and sails well....ferrocrete is a perfectly valid material for boat building it's just unfamiliar to most people

[Rickent]

So for that price would it be a good buy?

[magnetman]

I don't think it is 'perfectly valid' for a canal boat personally. Too easy to damage.

 

OK for yots

[John V]

I don't think it is 'perfectly valid' for a canal boat personally. Too easy to damage.

 

OK for yots

 

I'm not quite so sure....there were a lot of Thames lighters built in ferrocrete and some of them are still around. They get some pretty serious abuse. I think I am right in saying that the Fuel station in the Tideway in London was a concrete barge

[RLWP]

So for that price would it be a good buy?

Very hard to say. It looks to be a lot of boat for your money. It's going to be fairly old (1970s?). It has an unconventional hull so you are going to have to sort some things out for yourself - no boatyard is going to know what to do with it. And it will be tricky to sell for the same reasons you are asking about now

 

Offer 8500 and take a gamble?

 

Richard

[Rickent]

Not thinking of buying it . My house has just gone on the market so my search for a boat will soon be stepped up, I had never heard of this construction so it caught my eye.

I will definitely be looking for something more conventional. But it does look a nice boat.

[ditchcrawler]

Anybody heard of this construction?

There is one on fleabay at the moment.

Was it this one, a 1930 version of sheathing a rotten wooden boat in glass fiber

[Murflynn]

Like many forms of construction, the hull strength partly derives from the convex shape. This is especially true of ferrocement. A nicely shaped yacht like the one on post #11 is an ideal shape, and the hull thickness may be no more than an inch or so. A narrowboat is quite the reverse, and the construction will tend to be heavy in comparison.

[Guest]

This one?:

 

 

 

Richard

No, more like

 

This one

Edited August 2, 2014 by The Dog House

[MtB]

 

Concrete isn't particularly heavy, it's strength to weight ratio is actually quite good

 

 

It's strength to weight ratio in excellent in compression, but in tension it's rubbish.

 

This is why it needs reinforcement rods made from stuff like steel embedded in it. Without the rods a concrete structure would fall to bits quite easily. With the rods, it's extremely durable.

 

MtB

[mattlad]

 

 

It's strength to weight ratio in excellent in compression, but in tension it's rubbish.

 

This is why it needs reinforcement rods made from stuff like steel embedded in it. Without the rods a concrete structure would fall to bits quite easily. With the rods, it's extremely durable.

 

MtB

That's why it's called ferro-concrete! ;-)

[bag 'o' bones]

_{Would be an interesting project to design and build a boat using a modern concrete. There are loads of different chemicals that can be added to the mix to increase strength and flexibility. Bendy concrete is possible these days!}

[Hawkmoth]

 

I'm not quite so sure....there were a lot of Thames lighters built in ferrocrete and some of them are still around. They get some pretty serious abuse. I think I am right in saying that the Fuel station in the Tideway in London was a concrete barge

Many years ago I met a chap who made yachts out of the stuff. His boast was that one of his hit the Great Barrier Reef and all it sustained was a scratch, the reef came off worse, losing a about a ton according to him.

Bob

[RLWP]

_{Bendy concrete is possible these days!}

 

Concrete has always been bendy

 

Richard

[mango]

The question is whether concrete is as good as it's cracked up to be.