Aluminum hull advantages and disadvantages?

[C-NUMB]

Spray rails has a significant impact on speed, handling and fuel economy. Believe it is tougher to design & manufacture those on aluminium hulls, so sea handling wise or considering fuel economy can't see any advantage in aluminium hulls compared to GRP. But for applications where You really need the durability, aluminium is unbeaten.

For a leisure boat/RIB, my choice is GRP any time, just don't like welded or riveted hulls.

[ShinyShoe]

OK so aluminium is tougher. BUT if you do damage it in some remote humanitarian location you aint gonna have an aluminium welder handy are you?

On the other hand you could take some CSM, resin and gel with you for very little (can be in the shipping container) and provided its more than 5C you can get a hole patched (roughly) in 24-48 hours. In theory only with some basic hand tools.

[Silvertriton]

Originally Posted by ShinyShoe

OK so aluminium is tougher. BUT if you do damage it in some remote humanitarian location you aint gonna have an aluminium welder handy are you?

On the other hand you could take some CSM, resin and gel with you for very little (can be in the shipping container) and provided its more than 5C you can get a hole patched (roughly) in 24-48 hours. In theory only with some basic hand tools.

For sure it is easier to do a resin patch up on a remote beach but aluminum welding is pretty common even in the poorest of areas due to the popularity of repairing refrigerators and a/c instead of replacement....

[captnjack]

Originally Posted by Silvertriton

For sure it is easier to do a resin patch up on a remote beach but aluminum welding is pretty common even in the poorest of areas due to the popularity of repairing refrigerators and a/c instead of replacement....

Its quite difficult to reweld aluminum which has spent much time in saltwater. The salts penetrate the metal and contaminate the welds. You end up having to weld it, grind out the contaminated weld, reweld, regrind, reweld. Basically burning away the salts. You will have a hard time finding a <good> marine quality welder, I have had good and bad work done on my hull. The quality differences are striking.

Which sounds not <that> bad, except that the hull is heating up like mad... And you run the risk of the hull or the sparks burning a hole in your tubes.

Repairing GRP is actually easier, at least in small amounts.

[Rod Greene]

Been running a 17 foot 6061 t-6 Aluminum Rib. Has a 75 horse power four stroke Yamaha. Have had none of the problems with the aluminum hull you have been describing. Wash hull with soap and fresh water after each usage. And left on trailer. Rod Green San Diego Ca.

[jyasaki]

Originally Posted by captnjack

Its quite difficult to reweld aluminum which has spent much time in saltwater.

True but for an emergency (or a wait-til-you-can-get-to-a-welder) repair, a big glob of epoxy will do pretty well. Granted, it won't work for a foot-wide hole, but you're pretty unlikely to do that to aluminum in the first place.

jky