Sunrise Marine is specialized on building steel and aluminum vessels with an emphasis on reliable, easy-to-access machinery. This mindset starts below decks and works its way throughout all ship systems. 

STEEL

      Steel fleets dominate the world’s navies, research vessels and commercial marine operations, as well as expedition cruising yachts. Steel provides the strongest ratio of benefits of all available shipbuilding materials: strength, durability, ease of design and customization, fire resistance, ease of maintenance and repair, abrasion resistance. These characteristics make steel suitable for serious offshore vessels.

      Steel’s mechanical strength properties have made it the overwhelming choice for building commercial and military ships around the world. From breaking ice to withstanding groundings on rocky shoals and reefs, steel ships have a longstanding history of taking severe punishment of the worst kind, and despite the abuse, retaining both hull and watertight integrity. 

      Our hulls are extremely impact resistant. Steel by its very nature is also puncture resistant, hence its use in safes and vaults. These hull properties, together with appropriately-engineered hull plates, which are then reinforced by internal structural members, cross bracing and bulkheads, raise the likelihood of impact survival; be it a rogue floating shipping container or a log, the threat of damage to the hull integrity is decreased. Counter intuitively, steel is quite flexible in nature, so instead of cracking and shattering like fiberglass might, it’s more apt to dent and deform upon impact.

ALUMINUM

      Aluminum has many desirable properties that have made it popular for boats and related marine parts. First of all, aluminum is lightweight, one of the most important considerations when designing a boat. But its lightness does not mean it isn’t strong. Aluminum alloys have been developed that can match or even surpass steel when it comes to strength to weight ratio.

      Another point in favor of aluminum is its high yield strength, resulting in aluminum parts, in particular hulls that can take quite a pounding before they begin to deform. Its combination of tremendous strength and extremely light weight is what has made aluminum so revolutionary in so many industries. 

      To be sure, it is when dealing with marine environments, where salt water will be an issue that aluminum truly begins to shine. Aluminum alloys are developed with corrosion resistance in mind. First off, aluminum’s natural oxidization process gives it tremendous protection from all kinds of elements. Plus, when potential corrosion is a primary concern, such as for boats and ships, protective coatings can be added, bolstering an alloy’s already high tolerance for salt water.

      Furthermore, aluminum’s flexibility and formability mean that it is ideal for all sorts of marine applications. For example, even though aluminum will often be more expensive than steel, because working with aluminum is much easier, it ends up being a much cheaper manufacturing process. This includes that fact that aluminum is highly weldable, and can be worked with both as aluminum plate or extruded parts.

Maintenance

      Steel offers several key benefits when considering maintenance. Given that it is one of the most common raw materials in industrialized and even semi-industrialized nations, access to those who understand its repair techniques is widespread. A welder possessing even modest welding skills can provide a reliable patch to get you back on your way.

      Most often damage to aluminum hulls will result in a dent. This can be easily hammered out. More serious damage will need to cut out and replaced by an experienced aluminum welder, but this is less likely to occur.

Customization

      Sunrise Marine offers a tremendous level of customization. Steel and Aluminum vessels are built from the keel up according to design plans that allow for near infinite flexibility in the interior layout. Unlike other build materials, steel and aluminum vessels achieve their requisite rigidity and strength throughout the hull and its carefully placed load-bearing longitudinal stringers and cross members, as well as the hull-to-deck joint. This allows for bulkheads and floor plan considerations to be modified virtually at will without concern for adversely affecting the overall integrity of the vessel structure.