boat, It makes good sense to use the higher-grade

The aluminum sailmg yacht Troubador shows ojjher mte-

material for the hull.
riorjramm^, looking aft. Notice the closely spaced lon^tudi-
nal frames and the buill-m tank.

Metal Boats
Metal hulls, both aluminum and steel, are becom-
ing more popular every year due to their strength,

durability, low cost (steel), and light weight (alu-

minum). Chine hulls have always been fairly com-
mon in metal, but round-bilge hulls were rarely seen
in North America (although they have been popular
in Europe since the 1920s) because they require skills

and equipment possessed by only a few of the better

boatyards.

This changed in the mid 1970s when Brewer

Yacht Designs pioneered the radius-bilge hull. This on our latest designs the longitudinals are set proud
is essentially a single-chine hull that uses very large of the transverse frames, and the plating is not
radius sections between the flat topsides and bot- welded to the latter at all. This produces a very fair

tom. This radius can taper gradually from 2 feet aft hull, with none of the starved-dog look of the
to 4 feet or more forward. The resulting yachts are athwartship-framed vessel, because the longitudinal
difficult to tell from a pure round-bilge vessel. Other stnngers eliminate the tendency of the plating to sag
designers have used a radius bilge, but some use the between the frames.
same radius from bow to stern, and this does not Fastening today in both steel and aluminum is

produce as handsome a hull in my opinion. Radius- done almost completely by welding. The exceptions
bilge hulls are not all that difficult to build and are are thinly plated aluminum outboard boats, which
quite suitable to a small metal-fabricating yard. are often riveted. The advantage of the all-welded
Even amateurs have completed 45-footers and hull is that it is a one-piece, seamless structure with

larger craft of our design in both steel and alu- great strength and complete watertight integnty
minum. Electrolysis is a problem in metal craft. Since both
steel and aluminum react strongly with copper-based
metals, bronze fittings must be avoided wherever
Basic Construction
possible. Stainless steel shafts and propellers are

Metal hulls are framed with either bent frames of available with nonmetallic stem bearings, and fiber-

angular or T-shape sections, or sawn, flat-bar frames glass-reinforced nylon seacocks can substitute for

set athwartship. Older craft used all athwartship bronze. A bronze fitting must be insulated from the
frames, closely spaced. Modem construction favors hull metal with a Micarta block and fastened v\nth

widely spaced transverse frames with closely spaced stainless steel bolts. Similarly, bronze deck hardware

longitudinal stringers to support the plating. Indeed, should be replaced by aluminum or stainless where

CONSTRUCTION

87