[Jeff_H]

Its not as cut and dry as all that and I am not sure the salesman really knows his stuff. What you are describing is the way that the boat is internally framed. Stick built is a house building terms that does not even apply to boats. The correct term in boats in hand laid up framing and tabbing, but the discussion is more detailed than implied above. Below is a section describing different approaches to fiberglassl structure from an article that I had written on fiberglass construction. Like most production boats, when you talk about Tartans and Jeaneaus, boh use a combination of hand laid up frames and tabbing, force grids and pan systems. Tartans tend to use more force grids and hand laid-up connections and less pan areas than the Jeaneau. The other thing which is a pretty new boat building feature is glued in bulkheads. While it is true that the fiberglass or the bulkhead will fail before the glue lets go, the reality of glued connections is that the small faying surfaces concentrate loads in a smaller area making failure of the joint, fatigue and hardspots more likely. Both Tartan and Jeaneau employ glued in bulkheads in their nwer boats, but again Jeaneau use of glued in components is more widespread.

FRP (Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic- the technical name for 'fiberglass' construction- sometimes also called GRP) had become the primary way that pleasure craft have been built since the late 1960’s. There are a lot of ways to build a FRP boat and a lot of variations on each method. The three most common are Monocoque, cored and framed. You often hear people use the term ‘Solid Glass Construction’. This is actually a very vague and not a terribly precise description of the structure of a FRP boat. The term ‘Solid Glass’ hull or construction is typically used to mean a boat that does not have a cored hull. A non-cored hull can be monocoque (the skin takes all of the loads and distributes them), like many small boats today and larger early fiberglass hulls, or else framed, as most modern boats are constructed today.

A cored hull is a kind of sandwich with high strength laminate materials on both sides of the panel where they do the most good and a lighter weight center material. Pound for pound, a cored hull produces a stronger boat. Cored hulls are generally more durable since they flex less and so experience less fatigue. Cored hulls can also be monocoque or framed.

Framing helps to stiffen a hull, distribute concentrated loads such as keel and rigging loads, and reduce the panel size, which helps to limit the size of the damage caused in a catastrophic impact. Framing can be in a number of forms. Glassed in longitudinal (stringers) and athwartship frames (floors and ring frames) provide a light, strong and very durable solution.

Molded ‘force grids’ are another form of framing. In this case the manufacturer molds a set of athwartship and longitudinal frames as a single unit in a mold in much the same manner as the rest of the boat is molded. Once the hull has been laid up the grid is glued in place. The strength of the connection depends on the contact area of the flanges on the grid and the type of adhesive used to attach the grid. This is a very good way to build a production boat but is not quite as strong as a hand glassed in framing system.

Another popular way to build a boat is with a molded in ‘pan’. This is can be thought of as force grid with an inner liner spanning between the framing. This has many of the good traits of a force grid but has its own unique set of problems. For one it adds a lot of useless weight. It is harder to properly adhere in place, and most significantly it blocks access to most of the interior of the hull. Pans can make maintenance much harder to do as every surface is a finished surface and so it is harder to run wires and plumbing. Adding to the problem with pans is that many manufacturers install electrical and plumbing components before installing the pan making inspection and repair of these items nearly impossible.

Glassed-in shelves, bulkheads, bunk flats, and other interior furnishings can often serve as a part of the framing system. These items are bonded in place with fiberglass strips referred to as ‘tabbing’ that lap onto the framing element and the hull or deck. Tabbing can be continuous all sides (including the deck), continuous on the hull only, or occur in short sections. Continuous all sides greatly increases the strength of the boat but may not be necessary depending on how the boat was originally engineered. The strength of the tabbing is also dependent on its thickness, surface area and the materials used. When these elements are wood they can often rot at the bottom of the component where the tabbing traps moisture against the wood.