Aluminum Sneakbox

FWIW, the traditional BBSB hull does not lend itself to being built with sheet goods so I doubt anyone working in aluminum would go to the trouble to plank with aluminum. There are a few builders of aluminum sneakboxes, like County Line, but to the eye they hardly look like a BBSB. That is a hull for wood or fiberglass.
 
There was a guy around Manahawkin NJ about 15 years ago building a boat like that. I know he sold a few. It was welded and fairly heavy gauge aluminum.
 
Greg

I'd love to see pictures of it. The amount of welding it took must have been very time consuming. That boat must still be in existence somewhere because.
 
Hi Eric-I think I remember somebody on here selling one years ago, and they may have been from Connecticut. I'm hoping somebody here will turn up that knows more about it and maybe the builders name. The welding was something else, and I think it was something the builder wanted to do, because it was very time consuming. I wish I had a picture or something, because it was very unique. Cap'n Rich, I always thought that also. You would have to put down some foam or something on the deck inside the cockpit. But I don't think you could really harm that boat.
 
Greg

I recall several aluminum sneakbox builds. In fact I think @Scott Farris bought one that was based on Devlin's Broadbill. But those hulls were not the traditional "spoons joined at the rims" Barnegats, they were hard-chined hulls with deadrise. All of those builds were cool as heck but they worked the hull in sections with aluminum sheets. The complex curves of a true Barnegat wouldn't allow for that. You'd have to cut planks and weld and weld and weld....
 
Eric Patterson said:
Greg

I recall several aluminum sneakbox builds. In fact I think @Scott Farris bought one that was based on Devlin's Broadbill. But those hulls were not the traditional "spoons joined at the rims" Barnegats, they were hard-chined hulls with deadrise. All of those builds were cool as heck but they worked the hull in sections with aluminum sheets. The complex curves of a true Barnegat wouldn't allow for that. You'd have to cut planks and weld and weld and weld....
Click to expand...
Which is why “modern” BSBBs are molded fiberglass!
 
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a “true” Barnegat bay sneakbox just something similar. I was wondering if there was anything out there like that because I feel like aluminum would hold up to more abuse than the traditional wood/fiberglass boats.
 
Eric-you are correct about the true sneakbox hull, and the boat I was referring to was more like what Randy noted just above, and definitely not a BBSB, but similar in look(on top) and use. I hope Chris Finch is doing well, I miss hearing about his mushroom adventures and his hunting and enthusiasm. So Randy, there is someting out there for you to check out for sure as you describe above.
 
Randy

A properly built stitch-and-glue epoxy encapsulated boat taken care of will last many years. I have seen plenty of aluminum boats suffer damage, e.g. cracks and dents, some catastrophic. One of the things I like about my wood boats is a good repair is undetectable. That doesn't hold true for most of the aluminum repairs I see. I'm not placing wood boats above aluminum. I use both every year. But there a lot of wood boat fears that are more a function of how others built and stored their boats. If you want a boat that you can leave outside all year and bake in the sun half full of water then do not get a wood boat. If you are the type who take care of your things then maybe you should let your desires for a sneakbox win out over your fear of rot.
 
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