On Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:56:13 -0800, Chuck Gould
wrote:

Then why does a statement that modern composite construction is
supplanting traditional hand rolled rove and resin "peg the bullship-o-
meter"?

There are some legitimate concerns. Leading edge racing sailboats
started using end grain balsa cores back in the mid 80s to save
weight. End grain balsa was supposed to solve the "water migration in
the core issue". For various reasons most of those boats have ended
up getting water in the core anyway, and a lot of them have already
been scrapped. The jury is still out on all new construction
techniques until the boats have been around for a while.