![]() ![]() The Pen Duick made 1964 in painted plywood sails. Plenty of 20 to 30 years old boats in good shape. We made at Cherbourg in 1984 a 150 feet mine hunter in sandwich GRP, a bit flexible but always working. GRP can last, I know 45 years boats in good shape. Pen Duick III 1967 and Penduick V 1971 are well and sailing. The Pen Duick V made in 1969, the precursor of the IMOCA boats sails. In metal aluminum can last, is light and very weldable when using the good tecnique. There are other materials less problematic, easier to work, lighter at better prices. Probably it has been expertized and declared fit before being offered for sale. ![]() At least INOX showed to be durable, as it's a 61 years old boat. So that seems to work, after all the due precautions. After many insulating machined pieces, tons of silicones and bisulfite, replacement of hundreds of small items, and meters of welds remade with the good filler, the things were corrected. That has been a very costly affair for the builder. The SS cables of the rig, and hardware were very sick, and the base of the aluminium mast put simply in a SS shoe was badly corroded. All the SS screws were in the way to be destroyed. The boats were launched in 1985 and in 1987 they needed a major refit. I spoke with the builder and warned him about the electrolytic corrosion risk. In 1984 2 simple hard chine 40 feet SS 316 L Mo sail yachts were made near Paris. Some serious problems of corrosion in the absence of oxygen. Very easy to weld even with a simple stick welder, horrible to machine. They are in the austenitic SS and are very ductile with lots of hardening when worked. The SS 316 L (for low carbon) and better SS 316 L Mo (molybden) are extremely resistant to salt water corrosion when they have oxygen. The boat survived many miseries, and it seems that it is always sailed by its new owner (Bardiaux died in 2000). The construction is very heavy, the plates are until 15 mm thick. I do not know the name of the SS alloy and there are so many SS alloys. Bardiaux had to remake all the pieces of hardware, even the screws in the SS alloy of the hull. The trials were a nightmare as the boat showed problems of acute electrolytic corrosion. 15m 22 tons, even the masts are in stainless steel. That have been done by Marcel Bardiaux with his yacht INOX built in 1966. ![]()
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