At What Size Range Are Hulls Fully Cored?
 

This kind of goes along with some of the other build threads going on right now. I have a 2005 22 Donzi Classic. Actual length of hull is 22' 6". The hull is solid glass and has held up well to real off-shore use on the Great Lakes. I know that this makes for a heavy hull but I will never have to worry about rotten coring. The deck and liner are balsa cored. Transom is non-wood and stringers appear to not be wood also. Now let's say we step up to a 24' off-shore type boat such as a Pantera, Superboat, Banana, etc. Do these all use fully cored hulls? I assume that anything bigger would have to be cored to keep weight down?

It all depends on the builder.
Sometimes bottoms are cored. Sometimes sides are cored. Sometimes neither. Sometimes both.

Technology has changed significantly over time which has also allowed manufacturers to adjust. New materials, vacuum bagging/infusion; etc. etc.

Nortech builds solid bottom boats throughout their entire lineup.

My 24' Baja was balsa top bottom and sides. My 27 Donzi is foam stringers and transom no coaring top or bottom and she is a very light layup. Boat is much lighter than the Baja and the ride shows it...

Surprising answers!!

Here will be probably the most surprising answer. Checkmate used to build a little boat called the Playmate. I think it was 10 or 12 feet long. Like everything else in their lineup, it was fully cored with balsacore.

Panteras are not cored, atleast their 28's are not.

I remember looking at a 29' Envision at Broken Arrow Marine at LOTO. To demonstrate the toughness of the boat, the salesperson jumped up and down on the deck, walked up and down the face of the windshield, and then handed me a cutaway section of hull to show it was pure glass. Damn that thing was thick...and heavy! I had to laugh/cringe at what he was doing to a new boat but that was their LOTO sales pitch on how the boats were made to put up with the rough water. Their thinking was that non-cored boats are stronger. They are definitely heavier!

Joker Powerboats they built solid bottoms in their boats by at least 1 inch thick if not more. A lot of tops sides are cored in many boats. As mentioned depends on the builder and their layup process along with vacuum bagging and so on.. A lot of builders used balsa and or foam coring.

depend's on the year , I had a 2005 and the bottom was solid but the deck and side's had balsa core

It Varies by Builder "And" By Year. I Re-cored a 1967 Donzi 18 Triple Hatch, the Hull had no core, The deck was cored with Plywood. Some Builders did both (Cored/Non Cored) depending on the Buyer. Buyers could Pick core type or No Core at all. Coring actually makes a Stiffer Panel with less weight. Solid Glass will take more of a beating without failing, But at the cost of extra weight.

The 24 Superboat I used to own had coring in the deck and bottom, but not the sides. When you banged on the sides it sounded real thin. I asked the builder about it and he said that coring in the sides was not necessary.

I bought the boat when it was 3-4 yr. old, and kept it for 10 years. I tortured that boat and it didn't have a single stress crack in it when I sold it. The 24 Super is lighter than some of the other 24X7's, subsequently faster.

My 77 pantera 24 is not cored on anything but the transom.

if the deck and liner are balsa cored you absolutely need to worry about rot, balsa is wood. I have seen it scooped out like wet sawdust
Boats without wood come in many sizes, heck my neighbor just bought a 17 ft bow rider with zero wood.

All interesting replies! It's highly unlikely that I will have water intrusion on my deck since everything is well sealed and stays relatively dry. I suppose the floor could get wet eventually but to me it seems that a wood cored hull is a ticking time bomb since it takes such a beating and it only takes a small crack to let the water in and it's mostly out of sight so not discovered until a lot of damage has been done. It is good to see composites being used more and hopefully we will eventually see most boats being wood free. I thought that most 24' + boats must be cored to keep weight down. I learned a lot from this thread.

A friend of mine is a builder of the talon 22 and jcraft slalom ski boats. Unless I misunderstood him I am pretty sure he says that balsa core is stronger but foam core is lighter. I think it all depends on the purpose of the boat.
For all round non racing a boat with no wood has to be the best. ALl you have top do is replace a floor , transor or stringers once to appreciate the value of a non wood boat or a boat with a "water proof" layup. Seems to me that a current laverycraft is the cream of the crop in terms of great glasswork.