Are Cored Hull Sides Common?
 

I was reading through an old thread here, and someone mentioned that the Pantera 24 and Progression 24 have cored hull sides, which were stronger than those without. Isn't hull side coring common practice?

Michael

Good question. Cored hull sides are definitely the norm among (current) name brand manufacturers.

In my limited experience, cored hull sides are obviously not common among boats that relied on fiberglass as the only material used to construct the hull. Also, boats that were 'splashed' from their original manufacturer and built like a potato chip may lack cored hull sides or any core whatsoever.

You may want to post this in the Fiberglass forum.
Dan

Coring the sides is an extra step and expense for the builder however it creates a much stiffer more desirable structure for an offshore boat.. Now the Core selection and construction methods range from simple weights to vaccum bagging. Pat at AT cores/Bags his Boats as an example.

Yup, my AT was a cored boat. I went from a 33 Donzi with fiberglass sides to the AT, both the same length, the Donzi was 9' wide, the AT was 8. The AT was much lighter with same power (502) and drives, the AT was 100% more solid, it was quieter, smoother and just overall a world apart from the glass side. The AT just "felt" better, sounded better and rode much much better. So there is a first hand back to back test. The downfall is that you have to keep it dry, and be very careful buying used, these can rot out and feel soft or cave in if too big. There is nothing on earth worse than digging the core out of the hull and engine compartment because it was water soaked and rotted. Check the transom too. If the boat sat in the water don't even look at it, for other obvious reasons too, but still don't even think of it.
:D