Old Aluminum Mast -- Replace?

[Jim Fulton]

Originally Posted by Brian Duff

On another note i would be more in doubt of the hull of a 46 year old boat. Fiberglass hulls that old are often found to be brittle and not nearly as strong as the resins we use now. I am by no means a fiberglass expert, but I have been instructed by local experts to avoid and mistrust such old hulls. Maybe its just 'buy new boat-itus' but I am not sure.

As the owner of an older fiberglass boat, I would be very interested in seeing something besides hearsay to validate this assertion. I understand--again, by hearsay--that smaller boats with hulls that are thin and unreinforced (e.g., smaller daysailors and powerboats) do tend to soften up and become prone to oilcanning after several years of hard use, but I have never heard that larger hulls with more robust layup schedules get brittle. Most fiberglass boats built in the '60s and '70s were substantially overbuilt by today's standards; many are still going strong and are sailing all over the world.

Jim Fulton