steel hull, aluminium fit-out

[wethog81]

Hi there fisho's,

Does anyone know where the cheapest place to buy aluminium checker plate, or even just plate, is on the goldie or Brisbane? Gutted the boat and going to fit it out with ally, which brings a whole new bunch of problems to the fray, considering it is a steel hull. Just trying to put the lightest floor and fit-out into her as possible.

Any suggestions?

Cheers

[thylacene]

the shipbuilders in Launceston that built the Matthew Flinders ferry were using a composite plate that was mild steel on one side and alloy on the other. I had a look at some when I was in their yard.

Might be worth checking with some of the commercial shipyards, might be able to weld in some as floor and go with an alloy superstructure.

Cheers

Thy

[wethog81]

Cheers Thy, Sounds like some fairly amazing plate. The old girl is only a 21 footer, but as you can imagine, she ways quite a bit. Especially when I drop the v8 merc back in, it starts to become less and less trailerable with the more I put in. My thoughts were that ally plate is light, strong, and easy to clean. Just worried about it reacting with the steel. Is there any way to insulate the ally from the steel?

Cheers

[GBC]

One of the trawlers I worked was a steely with aluminium superstructure (Aquarius).
Every effort was made to isolate the metals, but it still got galvanic corrosion at the bolts.
There are some pretty good nylon inserts and washers around these days though.