plate vs pressed

[castamasta]

hi all,was wondering what are the pro,s and con,s of pressed ally hulls compared with plate.i presume the obvious would be strength,and maybe weight,ride and power needs,towing etc.....any thoughts?....cheers,casta.

[Owen]

Theoretically, a pressed boat can incorporate better design than a platey.
You can get shapes that would be next to impossible with a plate construction.
Theoretically you can also get very high strength for lower weight by use of ribs etc.
In reality I think there are good and bad examples on the market of both types.
i.e. pressed boats that have compromised strength in chasing weight and plateys that have outdated designs or too much weight.
A lot depends on where you are going to be using it though.
Boats designed in WA are different to Queensland.
Boats designed in Central & North Queensland may be different to those designed in the southeast corner.
Different wave patterns suit different designs.

If money wasn't an object, I'd have a platey parked out front though ;)

cheers,

Owen

[dave22]

This is more of a question, you keep hearing that plate boats are made that much stronger than pressed, and that they don't

crack with the same sort of frequency as pressed, but how would you know for certain that they are not cracking some welds

under the floor that are not intergral to the boat taking on water, I mean in a tinnie you can lift the floor and maybe find some

cracked welds which don't have a bearing to the boat taking on water, so is it likely that the same could be said for plate boats ?

I mean its not if you can lift the floor in a plate boat on a regular basis to check the welds. So is it possible that you can have

a certain amount of cracked welds without worrying to much, knowing that all boats have a few cracked welds?

[Owen]

Cracked welds are usually the result of flexing.
Plate boats are less likely to flex due to the thicker plate used, so have a better record with regards to cracking.
Whether you should worry about a cracked weld depends on where it is. All the welds are meant to be hanging on to something, so if it's cracked those loads go somewhere else possibly causing cracking there too.
You don't need to panic, but you do need to monitor it.
If for no other reason than if you leave the crack long enough it'll get full of crap and corrosion that makes it hard to re-weld.
Welded up my share of tinnies that were full of prawn juice. It ain't pretty [smiley=sick2.gif]

cheers,
Owen

[Lucky_Phill]

PLATE.


Phill

[dfox]

Dave 22, im speaking from experience here, but some of the early cairns custom craft were made with ply floors sealed and screwed down, ive removed and replaced the floor on two of them. Apart from allowing the owners to inspect for electrolysis it enable us to look at typical plate boats that had been used commercially for fatigue and cracks. Both had none and were in remarkable condition for there age.
Personally i owned a sportfish for 11 years, i bought it when i was in my early twenties, and i flogged the hell out of it, on its third outboard i had the floor cut up and converted it from a C.C. to a C.Cab. Once again no cracks.
What im getting at is a correctly constructed plate hull shouldnt crack.
But your quite correct in asuming that that could happen and indeed does occur. It only goes to prove the value of the locally built custom plate hulls over the imported chinese hulls. At least you can inspect the construction and quality of workmanship as its built #with local builders.
Back to the original question of plate over press, well in an offshore craft its no contest, but for creek and estuary work i like my pressed tinnie. Im sure i could build a plate boat for the creeks that would kill the tinnie but it would cost heaps and need more power to carry the additional wieght...foxy

[markpeta]

If money is there in the budget for a plate go for it. That would be the only down fall of a plate vs press. :)

Mark

[wayne_cook]

Go for plate(if for outside use) but it is surprising how close price can be between the 2.

[revs57]

PLATE 4 sure

Had a pressed Bermuda/quintrex - a good hull but no comparison to plate

Cheers

rhys

[Cheech]

After owning a tinnie and then a glass boat, I said I would never own a tinnie again. Then after recent trips on 2 different plate boats, I can easily see myself getting a plate boat in the furure.

[wayne_cook]

cheech what brand & size plate boat impressed you

[Pointyfish]

Get a glass boat. I've had problems with plate and pressed although I live in the choppy water capital of Australia were you need run a fair distance to reach the billfish grounds.

[timddo]

Go for a plate, i've got a freestyle tailcraft. it's light and does the job. although the plate is pressed, i checked it with the factory and they use 5083 quality for the hull

[redspeckle]

GO The Platey I [smiley=iloveyou.gif] my plate boat lucky get get one made out 5mm (see my icon)now over ten years old still going strong [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
My next boat be another plate boat looking getting 6.5 metre or bigger and theirs plenty in market place to chose one from different manufactures
Mitch
C'MON THE COWBOYS in 2006

[Coontakinta]

I concur with most here, Plate is the way to go unless u r talking about a estuary boat in which case pressed is probably much better. The extra weight of the platey can be an issue if your tow vehicle is not adaquet for the job, but that extra weight is most useful when u are further out and want more stability.

There are many plate manufactureres around in most states and I see that savage have introduced one to their line up so perhaps there is something in that. Thing with a platey also is, that in most cases, I think u can have a greater say in the design and build process. Not so much with the hull design of course, but with things like bow rails, seat boxes, transom doors, etc etc etc.

As brrbear mentioned price between the two can also be similar. My 5m Eclipse with a heap of modifications made to the base unit was a tickle under $40k. This included all the electronics, motor, trailer, rego, etc etc etc ;)
Apart from the selling dealer, my experience with SeaQuest was a sinch and a discussion with their sales manager @ one of our boat shows soon had me looking @ this hull over the Trailcraft I had anticipated owning. Nothing was too hard and all my wishes were available, unlike the trailcraft ::)

[castamasta]

thanks for all the input guys ;)..but i will put a small twist to the issue.....im looking more at a boat in the 4-5mt range.i like to do a little estuary and impoundment fishing,even a bit of tournement fishing,but i would like to widen my horizons a little,chase some macks and tuna on lures and fly and also some snapper on softies on the closer reefs.thanks again,cheers,casta.

[saurian]

Castamasta,
Offshore useage
plate , 5083 grade ali , built to usl code , reputable builder

Coastal/estuary usage , pressed pick a colour.

I think foxies comments pretty well hit it on the head.

[timddo]

bump