Aluminium has long been recognized as the premier boat building material. From America’s Cup yachts to Coast Guard & Harbour patrol boats to super Ferries & Sea Cats, aluminium has been the material of choice for decades.

Fibreglass is inexpensive and construction of fibreglass boats does not necessarily require a highly trained craftsman to build with it. as they are built from moulds.

Fibreglass material is simply saturated with epoxies either sprayed or laid within the mould and left to dry. A “high quality” fibreglass boat simply uses more fibreglass to make a stronger boat.

Thick, marine-grade aluminium alloy boats have traditionally been too expensive to build for the average consumer,  Each quality aluminium boat (and we are not talking about the cheap, thin Skinned riveted boats) had to be cut by hand, staged and welded by experienced craftsmen, In a real sense, each aluminium boat was a custom boat with a hefty price tag. For example, a 20-foot aluminium boat with a centre console could easily run upwards of {£30,000)

Fibreglass is a cheap alternative

As a boat material, aluminium excels in every important category…

Weight:

An all-welded aluminium boat weighs 1/2 to 2/3 the weight of a well “laid-up” fibreglass boat.

Performance:

Less weight means greater performance, better fuel efficiency and easier trailering.

Durability:

You can do things with a quality aluminium boat that you would never dream of doing with a fibreglass boat: dock it against your favourite ledge, repeatedly beach it hard on shore, plunk your anchor into the cockpit. Unlike brittle fibreglass, aluminium can take repeated abuse given the forgiving and yielding nature of this metal. Bang it, bounce or bump it into rocks, quay’s, beaches and even other boats and your aluminium boat will withstand it,

Safety:

The two most dangerous hazards in boating are sinking and fire. Our boats are both unsinkable and fireproof. If you have ever seen a fibreglass hull bum to the waterline, you already know the safety advantages of an aluminium boat.

Comfort:

A naval architect once said the hardest thing to design into a boat is usable deck space,

Our hulls are only 3/16″ thick allowing us to easily exceed fibreglass boats when it comes to usable space inside the boat. Fibreglass boats commonly lose up to 6″ or more of deck space over the entire length of the boat due to their thick sides.

Repairability:

In the unlikely event you have found a way to pierce or tear the hull of an aluminium boat, it is easily repaired by welding.

To have an electrolysis problem certain conditions must be present. You must have two different metals in contact with the water. All of our boats are made out of a single metal, so they don’t have this problem.

The only metals in contact with the water are the aluminium’s of the engine and the boat. Since the aluminium of the engine is “softer”, this is the metal that would be consumed by electrolysis. The sacrificial Anodes supplied with your engine will protect it, but should be watched and replaced as needed.

Additionally, we can place a large sacrificial zinc anode on the boat’s transom as a secondary protection.

The riveted boats are made from thin 1/16″ aluminium. Rivets work loose as the thin metal flexes and leaks. Robust Boats are completely welded out of marine-grade 5086 aluminium alloy. They have no rivets to pop, no wood to rot and no plastic or fibreglass to break.

Due to advances in technology, all our boats materials are laser cut to +/- 0.25mm and are fully welded using the 3 phase pulse mig system, ensuring a high degree of accuracy and repeatability, each boat is pre approved & inspected by MCA / Seafish.

With aluminium being a lot lighter than traditional materials, you need less than half the horsepower needed to equal the performance of a traditionally built boat of equal size, this has two benefits, firstly you use less fuel, and secondly your engine will cost you a great deal less to purchase.

Come and see them in action in some of the most treacherous waters in the country, Ramsey Sound !!

( We will thrill you, but we wont spill you. )