ChrisS
Member III
Isn't it funny the conversations you hear take place at the docks?
Last weekend I was walking down the dock with my sliding hatch that I had just had rebuilt, and a guy I don't know too well about eight or ten boats away from mine--a late 80s Irwin, I think--enaged me in conversation. He asked which boat was mine, its age, and how many other projects I had lined up for the off season. He then said something like, "I can't ever figure out you guys with the old boats. You sink all this time and money into them, and they are just about at the end of their life spans."
I pointed out that my boat surveyed well, and that I try to take care of it because not only do I like sailing it, but that it's pretty, and well designed to boot. I also said that boats are a terrible financial investment, but I don't expect to get a monetary return out of mine.
He said that none of the upkeep I do mattered, since fiberglass has a finite life span, and that at some point in the not too distant future, hulls were going to be losing their keels all over the Bay. I laughed a bit, and said that while that things age, a failing hull would most likely show the things surveyors look for: stress cracks, a rig that won't hold tension, excessive blistering, etc. His reply was that fiberglass is a relatively new material and that time will tell, but he insisted the best thing to do is to trade up every so often to a newer boat so as not to be stuck with one that is about to come apart.
Since then I have been searching around the web and reading about the life span of fiberglass boats, but there seems to be--surprise--a variety of opinions.
While I know that hulls have opened up in big seas, and from hitting things, has anyone ever heard of a fiberglass hull, one that has been sailed in conditions that the designer intended, and hauled and inspected and maintained on a regular basis, crapping out due to old age? I have to walk past this guy's boat to get to mine, and I'm sure this discussion will be an ongoing one.
Last weekend I was walking down the dock with my sliding hatch that I had just had rebuilt, and a guy I don't know too well about eight or ten boats away from mine--a late 80s Irwin, I think--enaged me in conversation. He asked which boat was mine, its age, and how many other projects I had lined up for the off season. He then said something like, "I can't ever figure out you guys with the old boats. You sink all this time and money into them, and they are just about at the end of their life spans."
I pointed out that my boat surveyed well, and that I try to take care of it because not only do I like sailing it, but that it's pretty, and well designed to boot. I also said that boats are a terrible financial investment, but I don't expect to get a monetary return out of mine.
He said that none of the upkeep I do mattered, since fiberglass has a finite life span, and that at some point in the not too distant future, hulls were going to be losing their keels all over the Bay. I laughed a bit, and said that while that things age, a failing hull would most likely show the things surveyors look for: stress cracks, a rig that won't hold tension, excessive blistering, etc. His reply was that fiberglass is a relatively new material and that time will tell, but he insisted the best thing to do is to trade up every so often to a newer boat so as not to be stuck with one that is about to come apart.
Since then I have been searching around the web and reading about the life span of fiberglass boats, but there seems to be--surprise--a variety of opinions.
While I know that hulls have opened up in big seas, and from hitting things, has anyone ever heard of a fiberglass hull, one that has been sailed in conditions that the designer intended, and hauled and inspected and maintained on a regular basis, crapping out due to old age? I have to walk past this guy's boat to get to mine, and I'm sure this discussion will be an ongoing one.