Hi all, My wife Mary and I are in the San Diego area and own a 42' trawler (made by Aquarius) which we purchased in Hong Kong. We lived on the boat in Hong Kong and boated around the islands there. I got a Master and Engineers licence, which is required to operate a powered vessel in the Hong Kong area. After about 8 months we shipped "Mo Mun Tai" to LA and brought it down to San Diego where currently do a lot of coastal cruising. Our plans are to do long range power cruising and are looking for another boat with longer range capabilities. One of the current trades we are wrestling with is steel vs fiberglass. Vince

At 02:54 PM 12/15/04 -0500, you wrote: >Our plans are to do long range power cruising and are looking for another >boat with longer range capabilities. One of the current trades we are >wrestling with is steel vs fiberglass. In general I would take Steel over Fiberglass. But, and here is the gotcha. Steel boats rust from the inside out. It's not that they have to, it's that prep and coating of the interior is often not adequate. There are several considerations, here is my take on them. If the hull was foam spray coated inside from water line to the gunwale and the coating is well adhered, and sea water has not been allowed to reach the steel below the foam, in other words the interior steel is well protected and liable to remain that way, then a steel boat is just about perfect. Unfortunately, all of these proper conditions are a rarity to find, especially in home built rigs and even many commercial yards are not careful enough with their prep and you then find the boat is in fact rusting from the inside out. It may be impossible to fix any of these problems once the hull has been finished inside. After all, the only real way to clean steel to bare metal is what is known as "bright white" and this requires sand blasting and you can imagine sand blasting inside a closed finished hull! Or, can you? I have real serious doubts about any surface prep on steel that does not include sand blasting to "bright white", as being adequate. It then needs about 12-20 mils of paint. Using half as much paint to the level of 6-10 miles is not enough. Once the paint coating starts failing the entire interior job is in jeopardy. It may be that power wire brushing might be adequate if the surface is coated with sprayed foam. The object of all this is that the surface will still be in excellent condition after 20 years. The other factor after the job is at sea is to keep water, especially sea water off the interior surfaces. This means gaskets on hatches, renewed at regular intervals and aggressively treating any area subjected to salt water with fresh water, cleaning out and treating with a rust inhibitor like WD-40. Mike Capt. Mike Maurice Tualatin(Portland), Oregon

>Vince Birlleson wrote: >Our plans are to do long range power cruising and are looking for >another boat with longer range capabilities. One of the current >trades we are wrestling with is steel vs fiberglass. Vince and other members of the group-- What are the features you want in a passagemaker? --Georgs -- Georgs Kolesnikovs Your host at Trawlers & Trawlering, formerly Trawler World, since 1997