The Oyster has a skeg rudder and the Baltic does not, is this
important?

That depends largely on what you want the boat to do. The skeg
supported rudder is usually thought of as stronger, but at a sacrifice
of some maneuverability. If designed & built properly (and one might
assume that a Baltic definitely is) the spade rudder is plenty strong
without a skeg.


... The Baltic is a cored hull laminate and the Oyster is
solid, again any thoughts.

Jere Lull wrote:
I tend slightly to the skeg, but will run *away* from a cored hull. I
don't yet believe they've worked all the bugs out of cored construction.


Oh "they" definitely have, the bigger question is- has the builder
done a proper job bonding the laminate skins to the core? Has the
builder tapered all the core panels around the edges and terminated
them properly? Is the core cut away (and edged properly, again) around
all the thru-bolted hardware? With a Baltic, it would be a suprise if
any of these were problems. A bigger question for used boats... has
any previous owner screwed stuff into the cored areas without
hardening it & sealing it properly?

Anyone who says they don't like cored construction is really saying
that they like their boats to be heavier & less strong than they could
be.

BTW all the Oysters I have seen also had significant cored sections in
the deck & inner grid.

A bigger question in choosing between these boats is if you like the
raised salon layout of the Oyster, or the "afterguard vs crew" cockpit
layout of the Baltic. Isn't it kind of odd that the OP didn't mention
anything about this consideration?

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

PS to Larry- The Amel is to the Baltic what a Lexus is to a Ferrari