Why Alunautic?

Five reasons why we think Alunautic is the best partner for the fishing-, fire fighting-, offshore-, and pleasure market boaters.

• Competitive pricing, Alunautic stands for the best design for the best price in this market.
• Made in Holland, “Dutch craftsmanship” is the catchphrase of this product.
• Material, the aluminum for the Alunautic boats has the Marine Qualification (Din).
• Qualification, Alunautic boats have been qualified according to the latest CE regulations.
• Custom built, EO has the craftsmanship to design and build boats on client request.

Why Aluminum?

A welded aluminum hull, as compared to fibreglass, will yield a more durable, longer lived boat which can be easily customized to customer requirements. Is simply and quickly repaired and is easily retrofitted to meet changing operating requirements.
General

Aluminum is a good choice for boats in the 6 to 20 meter range. Aluminum is used for most small to medium sized commercial fishing boats. and it is used in most crew -workboats in the USA and Gulf of Mexico. Aluminum has also been accepted as a perfect material for sea going RIB’S.

A lot of boats up to 20 meters are built of aluminum alloys. Small, thin hulled boats are fastened with rivets, with some welding on thick sections. Aluminum boats plated with 1 mm or thicker material, such as that proposed, are “fastened” using the metal inert gas (MIG) welding process. Aluminum has a higher strength to weight ratio than most other boat building materials. Aluminum has exceptional dent resistance and aluminum boats have typically 30 to 40% less weight than their fibreglass counterparts and 45 to 55% less than their steel counter parts. Weight savings provide a number of performance bonuses. For example, in a given size and shape of boat, lighter weight means greater speed with the same horsepower, reduced fuel consumption with the same speed, or a greater payload – more cargo or more range – all meaningful advantages. Light weight also provides reduced draft for a given payload.

Durability and repairability

Aluminum has great toughness. It will survive impacts that neither steel nor fibreglass will survive. In such cases the steel or fibreglass will rupture, while aluminum will merely dent. Like steel, aluminum has considerable ductility, i.e. the ability to withstand permanent deformation without rupture.

It has one third the modulus of elasticity of steel, thus it absorbs the energy of any impact over a greater distance than steel. Stress levels therefore are considerably less than would be the case in steel. Fiberglass, on the other hand, is extremely brittle and is thus subject to cracking and fracture during impact. Aluminum boats are much easier to repair than fibreglass boats, particularly fibreglass boats with foam liners. With aluminum, dents can often be pounded out with a hammer, but if necessary, sections of a plate can be cut out with a saw and simply replaced.

Flammability Aluminum does not burn. Fiberglass boats contain petroleum based resins which burn energetically. Fire retardant resin makes them harder to “light”, but nonetheless the burning is energetic once started.

Ease of Customization

Since aluminum boats are not built from moulds as are fibreglass boats, changes in design, modification in the location of bulkheads, size of cabins, etc. are all accomplished much more readily than with fibreglass. The ease with which equipment can be relocated by cutting and welding or drilling and bolting is also advantageous. With the advent of computer aided design, custom hull shapes and arrangements can be provided at prices which are competitive with low volume production runs.

Corrosion resistance

The salt water corrosion resistance of Aluminum is excellent and has been demonstrated by the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) in a thirty year test from the mid 1930’s to the mid 1960’s at which time a section of an aluminum hull was retired from its test site in Narragansett Bay because so little was happening to it. Corrosion problems with aluminum boats can usually be traced to either the use of improper alloys, galvanic or electrolytic corrosion, all of which may be easily eliminated through proper material selection, proper wiring, bonding and isolation procedures.