I fought the rust and the rust won, I fought the rust and the rust won.

In the merchants it's a forgone conclusion the ocean is going to win. Partly because the envirionment is non stop. Partly because small crews, typically 25 or less with four, five, or six in the deck department can't keep up (unlike a similar size navy ship with up 200 to 300 crew. Ships are considered too old at 25 years and often undergo semi-annual inspections at 20 plus years. SOME last longer but the maintenance and insurance costs often go up at that point.

Yachts, typically a lot smaller, much more stainless versus regular steel, used less in a lifetime than ships are in a year are much easier to maintain. A goo thing the crew is normally one or two.

But ANY prolonged exposure to salt and the ocean can and will cause problems so the trick is ease of inspection. As in don't cover it up. plastic tubes on shrouds are a good example. If you do so make it easy to remove for inspection and fresh water washdown as much as possible.

As was said DO NOT buy a boat without a survey and a safety survey prior to any major ocean endeavour.

Areas such as under the bottom end of a cathedral mast need special attention.

Because of my job in the merchants I don't do steel boats (because of six years living in theold Canal Zone I don't do wood either.)

Now we have three rules the first two compliments of Cap'n Jim of the schooner Kia Ora (now sailing in that big ocean in the sky)

Brass Is Green Teak Is Grey Salt Water's for Sailing

and of course his famous painted toenails are fine if they are chipped when looking for anchor wenches, co-skippers, and anchor wenches. The ladies will have to do their own version of that last one.

Cheers

Michael