Cored decks?

[Dog Ship]

So, I was drilling a hole in the cockpit bulkhead for a wind gauge, expecting to drill through an inch or so of fiberglass, balsa, and more fiberglass, when my 4" bit disappeared through two pieces of fiberglass and no core.
So I ask, just how much deck on a cored deck C&C has actually been cored, and how much has been left hollow?

[PaulinVictoria]

The cockpit bulkhead isn't cored on mine either.

[Faster]

In many cases I think you'll find most of the 'vertical' areas are not cored... so cabinsides, cockpit well sides, aft cabin areas, etc. may well not have any coring.. A cored panel adds considerable strength so makes most sense for areas that will get walked on..

Which leaves you drilling though the skin and the underlying liner...

It's not universal, though.. our boat's cabinsides are cored as well as the deck, but the cockpit sidewalls are not, nor is the aft wall of the cabin.

[Dog Ship]

That will make things interesting. One would think a corded deck is a cored deck.
I added a bunch of stuff to my mast when I had it out and rerigged a few things. It has caused rigging chaos on deck. I will need to move some cheek blocks around and add a double jam cleat for my two genoa halyards, an extra winch for the two spinnaker halyards will be nice too.
Beyond drilling a hole to see if something is there I guess I will just hold my breath while drilling.
This also brought up something else to think about. I wonder how many boats have been miss-surveyed as having rotten cores when there may have been no core there at all, ever. Hhhmmm

[sailingfool]

Originally Posted by Dog Ship

That will make things interesting. One would think a corded deck is a cored deck. .... I wonder how many boats have been miss-surveyed as having rotten cores when there may have been no core there at all, ever. Hhhmmm

The deck would not include the cabin sides nor the cabin top.

Any junior surveyor will have the expertise to know where a boat has cored panels or not, as its general knowledge.

[Dog Ship]

Originally Posted by sailingfool

Any junior surveyor will have the expertise to know where a boat has cored panels or not, as its general knowledge.

It's obviously not general knowledge, as Faster has stated that some of his boats vertical surfaces are cored where on some boats they are not cored.
I would be left to assume that some horizontal surfaces may not be cored as well.
How would you know unless you were the one who built the boat.
And then there are all of the technics and different ways of construction that C&C has experimented with over the years, there is no way in the world someone is going to know all that.
Let alone all of the other manufacturers who have been changing construction methods over the years.
It rediculous to think someone would know all of that, really dude.

[chef2sail]

In our 35 MKIII the verticle sides and anything related to the cabin are cored including the verticlke sides near the companionway. The deck is cored as is all of the cabin top.

The rest of the cockpit verticle surfaces there is very little coring except on the surfaces where the winches are bedded.

Dave

[CharlieCobra]

Surveyors are not omiscient. I recently had one who was well recommended, been a wood boat surveyor for more than fifty years, swear up and down that the K-50 he was surveying, did not have cotton caulking. Until I dug out a strand.....

[Dog Ship]

Being omiscient is "the" problem with all surveyors or at least the belief that they're omiscient is the problem. But that's a catch 22.
I can see flat areas on the cabin top that are obviously ment for mounting hardware and winches but I will have to mount some things where I do not believe it was intended to mount hardware. Most of the hardware I will be mounting will have a lateral force on it as opposed to a vertical upward pull. So if I have to, I can drill a much larger hole through the liner and use large washers or custom made plates for backing. I was hoping for a little more than a bolt through 1/4"-3/8" of fiberglass and a washer holding it all together. Enlarging the hole through the liner to get some backing in place may be an issue in some areas of the interior. I will have to take a much closer look.

[sailingfool]

Originally Posted by Dog Ship

It's obviously not general knowledge, as Faster has stated that some of his boats vertical surfaces are cored where on some boats they are not cored.
I would be left to assume that some horizontal surfaces may not be cored as well.
How would you know unless you were the one who built the boat....
It rediculous to think someone would know all of that, really dude.

To be more precise, its general knowledge ... a surveyor would have. I would not suggest that all surveyors know all things, just that those who have been around will throughly know the construction of common production boats. At least that is my experience.

That it may be mystifying to you doesn't make it mystifying to people who make knowing such information their job.