26' Open CC with two soft spots

Hired a "pro"....he took all of the floor out and ground it to the gunwhales.....

Then poof.....

So....I basically have a complete mess on my hands. I need to put this thing back together, by plywood and glass are soooo heavy. I saw some really light weight (and reportedly stong) foam type stuff and when you resin it.....WOW. Does anyone have a clue what I am talking about....clearly I don't!!

Looks kinda like a honeycomb from one side...

This is probably what your talking about (or something similar)

http://www.plascore.com/marine-honey...ufacturing.php

Sorta....
Same basic idea, but this is not intended to be used along with another substrate.....and strong as heii
Anyone.
.

Nida core maybe????

sounds like that to me too griff.. commander the stuff is great. friend of mine made a engine hatch out of it for his magnum. ultra light and he walks on his hatch!!

UA Laboratories tests all kinds of Building Materials for Strength along several parameters, Tensile Strength, sheering, impact psi, load psi, and various combinations of all of them. I am all for making a boat Lightweight too and have a Winter to look forward to upgrading my "changa and have found that the Carbon Fibre materials are ridiculously overpriced and when you're talking 2 lbs difference in a sq. Yd. Of material compared to comparably engineered fiberglass, it just doesn't seem worth it to me. I would think by now Boat Builders would have looked into composite stringers and transom assemblies ..but then what would they do all winter right?? Water proof, UV Resistant, Maintenance free, Strong, varying grades of flexibility, and Machineable/workable/threadable. Anything that would make the basic structure of a boat hull rot proof would be my first Priority.

Nidacore is a great product! I especially like to use it for curved verticalsurfaces and buklheads. Make sure that you add solid wood (mahogany) or solid composites anywhere fasteners will penetrate the honeycomb to prevent compression. My 28' Cigarette CC has a good bit of Nidacore in it.

Great! That's the stuff....
Now....trim to fit."no problem. Then what? Do I use an epoxy like hull to deck, or some other for of fastening it down.....and also....around the perimeter?

Just thinking about my old PQ hatch I rebuilt. I remember that was one heavy b*tch. I think I could have saved 175lbs using the engineered stuff. 175lbs is close to 1 mph faster. What's the cost on a standard sized hatch in the Nidacore or equivalent?

thanx

Just did a ton of reading.....but I cant find what I need....
I assume 3/4...no problem.

Buy pre finished.....no problem.....do I add a topside (weather side) coating? For strength I mean....I planned on cabasol with a textured roller for slip......

But.....what to secure it to the stringers? At the seams? To the gunwales? at the transom?