Most sailboats are fiberglass these days, but if you are looking for a really strong sailboat, you are likely to choose steel or aluminum. Fiberglass is fine for normal use, but if you are going cross oceans, or give your sailboat a hard life, metal is best. They are also good materials if you want to get your own design of sailboat built.
The reason aluminum or steel are best is that metals are both strong and stiff, and when hit really hard, they bend fiberglass and even the most advanced composites will break, and even shatter. Then the sailboat will almost certainly sink. A sailboat with a dent in the hull can keep going.
There are other advantages, too. Fiberglass boats usually have separate keels that are bolted in place. The bolts ‘work’ in the retaining holes in the hull, enlarging then slightly, and after a few years you are likely to get leaks. Worse still, if you press your sailboat really hard, the bolts can break,and you lose the keel. This happens quite often in racing, and can happen to cruising sailboats as well.
The keel of a steel or aluminum boat is formed as part of the hull, so it cannot come off and the ballast of lead or...
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