RE: what size guage steel for this type of hull?
aluhm > 12-29-2021, 01:05 AM
This boat is built like a brick shipyard!
Depending on the type of usage you expect from a size of boat like this, you could build it out of (maybe even less then ?!?) 1/16" aluminum.
Look at helicopters and airplanes, their clever use of stiffener angle braces or ribs.
Look at some 150 feet long (or longer) aluminum hulls.
They use ribs welded into place with roughly just twice the hull thickness (or a bit more) of your boat!
It is the way you design the structure that will basically determine the cladding thickness.
There are many computer aided softwares out there.
Once you finish the design, the software will do a finite element analysis on it and it will give you the stresses at any point on the boat.
I would never make a boat this small out of mild steel. (Too heavy!)
You could scratch the living daylight out of this aluminum boat and it will do fine!
However, make a microscopic scratch on the steel hull and it will start rusting under the paint!...