Hull construction

[saildream45]

Hello,
I'm looking to purchase a 1989 Hunter Legend 40 to liveaborad in Canada. I've been told to stay away from balsa core boats. I've looked extensively online to find out how this boats hull was constructed but I'm not having any luck. Are balsa core boats really that bad? And is there a way to find out how this hull was constructed?.

Thank you!

 

[31seahorse]

You could try an internet search: 1989 Hunter Legend 40 review. Many sailboat oriented magazines have reviews of recently launched boats and a magazine like Good Old Boat might have looked at the boat you mentioned.

If no owners of those boats respond from this site try Hunter Owner groups on yahoo or other places like Facebook.

Also, sometimes the sailboatdata site will mention construction details in the lower part of their listing.

Just to clarify.....The information above is for informational purposes only. I have no financial interest in any of the sites, magazines, or groups I mentioned.

Depending WHO told you to "stay away" from certain boats you might choose to believe that person or persons. A marine surveyor would be a credible person to offer that information.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Most boats and all production boats have cored hulls ABOVE the water line. There is nothing wrong with that. Actually, cored hulls (above the WL) serve a number of useful purposes among them, insulation, sound deadening, structural stability, etc. Whoever told you to stay away from such boats is making a huge generality mistake has ed on too little info. Hunter, Catalina,Beneteau, etc... are all constructed with balsa core on deck and above the WL.

Cored hulls BELOW the WL is a different story but neither Hunter or their competitors ever made such hull designs.

 

[saildream45]

Thank you!

 

[saildream45]

He was talking about below the waterline. Apparently if the hull blisters and gets in that core it next to impossible to fix.
It looks like the hunter line is all glass below the waterline

Thank you for you reply.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

I would still check to see if any other style wood square blocks was used in the construction of any hull as some did below the water line but cannot tell on this boat. Call Hunter and ask for Greg Emerson who might be able to answer that question.

If a blistered hull, then basically you need to cut them out depending on the seriousness and if a lot, let the hull dry out for some length of time before repairing and adding barrier coat. If not, the addition of barrier coat will seal in any moisture if remaining and then you have a mess on your hands. Many use moisture meters but many old scalwags use to take a piece of saran wrap and tape it well to the hull. If they came back the following day and saw water/moisture underneath, the hull was still wet. what many do not realize moisture does get into the hull and when applying barrier coat, the hull needs to be dry.

 

[MrBill_FLL]

I thought C&C built 'SOME' boats w/cored hulls below waterline. & probably some others, for a few years...

-someone had to do this to find out it doesn't work.

 

[Jackdaw]

There is nothing at all wrong per se with fully cored hulls. It creates a very light and stiff hull. The trick is to do it right so you keep water out.

Use vinylester or epoxy resins
Provide solid hull areas for thru-hull and other penetrations.
Use one of several proven techniques in the coring to prevent any water incursion from wicking to a much larger area.

Most original C&C hull were fully cored. Sadly a lot of them got very wet.

 

[Picflight]

As Crazy Dave mentions, the key to a good hull is to completely dry it out and seal it.

Open the moisture area, blisters and move it to a desert for 6 months if you can. A far stretch, but what if you could put it in the desert for a while.

 

[Paul Cossman]

Saildream 45,

I have a 1991 Hunter Passage 42. Although slightly different from the year and model you are looking at, I suspect they may be close enough in size and year to be of similar construction techniques. My hull is balsa cored above the waterline only, and the core starts well above the actual painted waterline on the hull.