Charlie,

Aluminum may not be your material of choice and that's just fine, I'm sure, for a lot of guys around here. That does not now, nor will it ever, eliminate aluminum as a purposeful material for a boat, depending on the design brief needs and the preferences of the original poster.

I'm fairly sure you have some favorite clothing combinations which do not meet aesthetic or social acceptability, wherever you may live(we all do). In fact, I've sometimes pictured you in a pair of loud plaid trousers and a lime green Banlon shirt outfit right off a 1983 golf course. ;-) Still, it works for you for the things you feel you need to do with yourself.

When you get that we all have a perspective and that it is quite likely not based on the same design or engineering paradigm that is used by you, you will have gone miles to understanding the point being made here on behalf of the gentleman who posted the beginnings of this thread.

Aluminum works as a boatbuilding material for any number of reasons. You may not choose to own one, should Steve pursue his query further, but some other guy just might and it may be for reasons with which you have never fully come to grips.

I very clearly remember the derisive commentary from the glass and polyester gang the first time a few guys showed up to paddle their rotomolded boats at the Newport Beach Harbor. They said stuff like, "What, exactly, are you going to do with that Tupperware salad bowl from your Mother's drawer? You're not thinking that you can paddle that thing, do you? Brother, you have wasted your money."

And now where are we with the plastic boat industry?