There are some cored hulls which are very strong--and I reference a story I have related in the past--that of a boat I was on hitting a container at 8 knots-- had 3" strip planked balsa core--the outer skin was breached, the core was impacted and the inner skin was delaminated, but not breached; no water entered the boat.
During the years, I have seen a lot of wrecked boats--but nothing like this last season with Hurricane Ivan. I examined over 400 damaged boats. Some of these boats had Kevlar layers in the laminate. I can testify that having the Kevlar did not prevent the from boat being broken. There were many types of damage, but often blunt force, tore the layers of laminate apart.
Generally cored boats did not fare as well as solid boats, when they banged on pilings, fell off racks, hit rocks or were hit by other boats. I own three boats: one is solid under the water line, with a cored hull above the waterline, another has full glass thickness on the bottom and sides, but there is also 1 1/2" of balsa inside of the bottom, with another 1/4" of glass on the inside, and the third is all solid glass. I don't worry about what material construction is used in any of the hulls.
I do have my choice for crossing oceans however--and that is solid glass, or a core much more substantial than the averaged foam cored boat.
I agree that Larry's comments are appreciated.
Regards,
Bob Austin
There are some cored hulls which are very strong--and I reference a story I have related in the past--that of a boat I was on hitting a container at 8 knots-- had 3" strip planked balsa core--the outer skin was breached, the core was impacted and the inner skin was delaminated, but not breached; no water entered the boat.
During the years, I have seen a lot of wrecked boats--but nothing like this last season with Hurricane Ivan. I examined over 400 damaged boats. Some of these boats had Kevlar layers in the laminate. I can testify that having the Kevlar did not prevent the from boat being broken. There were many types of damage, but often blunt force, tore the layers of laminate apart.
Generally cored boats did not fare as well as solid boats, when they banged on pilings, fell off racks, hit rocks or were hit by other boats. I own three boats: one is solid under the water line, with a cored hull above the waterline, another has full glass thickness on the bottom and sides, but there is also 1 1/2" of balsa inside of the bottom, with another 1/4" of glass on the inside, and the third is all solid glass. I don't worry about what material construction is used in any of the hulls.
I do have my choice for crossing oceans however--and that is solid glass, or a core much more substantial than the averaged foam cored boat.
I agree that Larry's comments are appreciated.
Regards,
Bob Austin
