Tony V wrote:

I posted this on iBoat and thought I'd give it a try here.


Years ago my wife and I owned a 28' Luhrs with a glass hull and wood
topsides. Eventually, replacing rotted wood in the cabin sides got to be too
much of a chore and we sold the boat and took up camping.

Having our fill of that,we want to get back to boating. Our only requirement
is that the boat be fiberglass with no wood.

When I starting doing some reading and research, I found that a solid glass
boat, like my old Luhrs, is a thing of the past.

Worse, I was seeing stories of water-soaked cores, rotten floors, pulpy
transoms and hulls coming apart in a seaway. I almost have convinced myself
that a wood boat would be a better choice since it is repairable without
removing an outer skin!

Am I being foolish here? Are the problems with saturated cores, delamination
and blisters only occuring in a small percentage of boats, or is the problem
more widespread?

I'm trying to educate myself so that I can do a pre-survey on a boat of
interest before a professional survey is done.

Maybe some of you more experienced boat buyers or a professional can put
this in perspective for me.

Any and all advice & comments are appreciated. Many Thanks

Tony Va



I wouldn't buy a boat with a cored bottom, and I wouldn't buy a boat
with balsa coring anywhere, but there are plenty of good boats around
with solid bottoms and closed cell foam coring on the hullsides and in
the decks that can be built relatively trouble-free. If there is coring,
your surveyor will make sure it hasn't been breached by fittings or by
owner add-ons.

There are plenty of top-quality fiberglass boats built with wood
stringers and wood in the transom. As long as it is the right kind of
wood and properly encapsulated, it can be the right choice.



--
* * *
email sent to will *never* get to me.