What is the best hull material for a yacht?

Question

I would expect wood would absorb a lot of the water and rot easily, i know there are a lot of different hull materials out there, what would be the best for a 40 - 80 ft yacht and why?

Answer 1

My 60' Motor Yacht is GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic). It's strong and lighter than steel, but the MY still weighs in over 32 tons. A steel version would weigh even more. The Superstructure is all steel beams in the MY, and has many levels of aluminum cross beams to support the decks. You'll find most yacht builders go this route to keep weight down rather than costs. Once you get above 100', then the vessels become steel hulls. The costs verses weight is reversed. To create a GRP vessel 100'+, the costs start to really hurt. Hull thicknesses exceed 1.25" for the sides and 4.0" for the thickness below the water lines. Now the strength and lower cost of steel benefits greatly.

Answer 2

Boat Hull Material

Answer 3

Any strong, ductile engineering material is the best material for building a yacht hull.



For example (in no particular order) steel, timber, glass-reinforced plastic, foam-sandwich, concrete, aluminium (US aluminum) or even iron. Or, as has been noted, any reasonable composite.



As for "what would be the best for a 40 - 80 ft yacht and why?" ...



That is all down to the particular specification. Which is a sort of 'agreement' between the owner and the architect. (Sometimes one-and-the-same).



A medium-sized article might scratch the surface. And given such a huge range in specified LOA (40 - 80 ft) would doubtless be hugely narrowed-down in earlier discussions anyway.



Ultimately, what the architect wants to know is: What displacement? What is the proposed use for the vessel? What are its operating waters and seasons? And, how much do you want to spend?

Answer 4

In 40-80 ft. your choice is fiberglass. Aluminum as a second choice.



However the hull material is just the beginning. The design and propulsion are critical to any choice. There has to be a balance between size and the boats desired use and its speed and range. I've favored trawler designs for years, but I've moved toward more traditional (yet high tech) designs.



There are design considerations for any hull material. Weight being the most critical, but as Derrick said, there are ways to reduce weight by using other materials like Aluminum in the superstructure.

Answer 5

What IS IT WITH YOU PEOPLE.. a 40 to 80 foot boat is NOT A YACHT.. and if you knew SH*T about BOATS YOU WOULD KNOW THAT WOOD IS NOT USED FOR BIG BOATS and has not been used for BIG BOATS for SEVERAL HUNDRED YEARS.



For a YACHT.. which is something over 85 FEET and 100 TONS the best material would either be STEEL or ALUMINUM or FIBERGLASS.. When one of you people calls EVERY BOAT a 'YACHT" that just tell us YOU DON'T KNOW SH*T ABOUT BOATS

Answer 6

Best, aluminum, fiberglass, composite and wood/fiberglass (which is cold molded) These are in no particular order because there is no best just what works well for where you plan to go and cost.

Answer 7

If you are building it.

I would use a wood and fiberglass combination.

The wood i would use would be OAK.

Not the general crap wood they use in boat construction .

Answer 8

i would say glass fibre