Cored Hulls

[Glory]

As with the later 32', the 31' also had gelcoat vs paint. I believe it was an effort to provide a Hatteras a price the little guy could afford. The experiment was a failure. You could buy a pretty nice house for what my 31'EC cost in 1975.

BTW, no coring in my transom. Cockpit sole foam, decks balsa, hatches must be plywood-they are quite heavy

Gary

I didn't know that you can fish off a house?

JM

 

[dottieshusband]

Is that off of your 63' Dot Com?? Wow!

Yep, That's your hull about 10 inches above the water line. The thickness tapers down to about 5/8 of an inch at the air intakes for the engine rooms.

 

[Agjagja]

I called have Hatteras when I bought my 41 convertible 1987 with my hull number and they told me that I had no core in hull. Their records should tell you.

 

[MikeP]

Yep, That's your hull about 10 inches above the water line. The thickness tapers down to about 5/8 of an inch at the air intakes for the engine rooms.

Yep, as the "specs" developed by Jack Hargrave, required, FG had to be thick enough to lay a plank of it on some bricks at each end and drive his car over it without breaking the plank!

Nowadays, of course, hull thickness is a fraction of the original Hargrave "spec"

 

[captddis]

I called have Hatteras when I bought my 41 convertible 1987 with my hull number and they told me that I had no core in hull. Their records should tell you.

I think they meant that the Bottom is solid on the 87 . Some early 41 series had cored bottoms. The hull sides are cored on all of them.

 

[Kevinct]

I think, perhaps, the issue is WHEN Hatteras went to cored hulls, and the strict definition of hull, hull bottom, etc...

Currently, Hatteras reports, "All Hatteras hull bottoms are hand-laid in fiberglass with no coring below the waterline."

From the Hatterasyachts.com website (regarding Hull construction):

Use of PVC core allows for the flexibility to design and select various core densities for different applications

Use of PVC core eliminates the fear of core degradation (rot) and produces a light, stiff structure

 

[jim rosenthal]

Not to mention the insulating that it gives. My 1971 36C is cored in all the decks, plus the coatings. It is not cored in the bottom or the transom. The aft bulkhead is wood, in two parts- the upper 2/3, which begins right about deck level, and the lower 1/3, on which the top third sits. Nowadays that bulkhead would be Coosa board or something like it.

The only Hatteras yachts that had cored bottoms (of which I am aware, anyway) were the 41 convertibles mentioned above. I think those were only early ones, and later ones were not cored. I had the idea, also, that some of the cored hulls with problems were returned to the factory.

Having a hull cored below the waterline isn't necessarily bad- some very good boats have been built with cored hulls- but it seems to me that it introduces additional complexity and possible failure points.

 

[saltshaker]

Not to mention the insulating that it gives. My 1971 36C is cored in all the decks, plus the coatings. It is not cored in the bottom or the transom. The aft bulkhead is wood, in two parts- the upper 2/3, which begins right about deck level, and the lower 1/3, on which the top third sits. Nowadays that bulkhead would be Coosa board or something like it.

The only Hatteras yachts that had cored bottoms (of which I am aware, anyway) were the 41 convertibles mentioned above. I think those were only early ones, and later ones were not cored. I had the idea, also, that some of the cored hulls with problems were returned to the factory.

Having a hull cored below the waterline isn't necessarily bad- some very good boats have been built with cored hulls- but it seems to me that it introduces additional complexity and possible failure points.

The 46 III had a cored hull below the water line. Not sure why Hatteras did it again after they abandoned the practice on the early 41C II. Many manufactures have tried cored bottoms. Bertam did it and all the new Vikings are colored below the water line.

 

[Boatsb]

Searay also has cored hulls. Hatteras was owned by the same people and may have looked at the benefits and the downside.