10/07/2026
Fiberglass needs constant care to survive. Aluminium just needs one thing.
Here's the thing about fiberglass. That shiny surface, the gel coat, is basically the boat's sunscreen. And like sunscreen, it wears off. Sun fades it, it goes chalky, then it starts cracking. Once that happens, water finds its way into the layers underneath and the real damage starts.
So you wax it. You polish it. You refinish it. Every season. Skip a year or two and the clock starts ticking.
Now be honest. Who has time to wax a workboat?
Aluminium doesn't play this game. The metal protects itself by forming a thin oxide layer on the surface, and that's the end of the story. There's nothing to babysit, nothing blistering under the paint, nothing slowly coming apart inside the hull.
One thing it does ask of you: check your anodes.
Those small sacrificial blocks that corrode so your hull doesn't. Look at them now and then, swap them when they're worn. Done.
That's really the whole difference. With aluminium, the risk is preventable. With fiberglass, you're not preventing anything. You're just postponing it.
