# Solid fiberglass decks.



## seafrontiersman (Mar 2, 2009)

I believe that Pearson 422/424 were built with solid glass decks. Is this as 
Nice as I think it ref. deck leaks and structural integrity?

Any other vessels out there built with solid glass decks?


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## boatpoker (Jul 21, 2008)

Never seen a production boat over 24' with solid glass decks although I've had many people tell me they had solid glass when they didn't.


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## Delta-T (Oct 8, 2013)

Bristol's have solid everything!

Edit: At least the early ones do.


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## boatpoker (Jul 21, 2008)

Delta-T said:


> Bristol's have solid everything!
> 
> Edit: At least the early ones do.


Except for the balsa in the decks and trunk


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## TomMaine (Dec 21, 2010)

seafrontiersman said:


> I believe that Pearson 422/424 were built with solid glass decks. Is this as
> Nice as I think it ref. deck leaks and structural integrity?
> 
> Any other vessels out there built with solid glass decks?


Rare, but my boats decks built in 1961, are solid glass. The decks were molded in one piece, through bolted to the hull flange, and glassed over.

Instead of core, Alden spec'd a support framework below of small framing members. These were fastened to the wood cabin and to fiberglass 'ribs' at the outboard end, then glassed to the approximately 3/8" thick glass decks, above.










What an operation! Not only was that procedure time consuming, Alden later specified bolting 'sisters'(raw wood in photo) to the frame members, for added stiffness.

The bottom line they learned was, it was difficult to make a solid deck stiff. They quickly went to cored decks after these 52 Alden Challengers were built.

53 years down the road, it wasn't such a bad idea. The fiberglass hull and deck on my boat so far, are like new. I've never had an issue with any core rot. Because they're solid, backing plates and bedding have no compression problems and deck leaks are very, very rare.










The original diamond pattern non-skid is worn but I painted it a few years ago, and it looks great.


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

seafrontiersman said:


> I believe that Pearson 422/424 were built with solid glass decks. Is this as
> Nice as I think it ref. deck leaks and structural integrity?
> 
> Any other vessels out there built with solid glass decks?


Pearson was one of the earliest companies to adopt balsa coring. The east coast Tritons had cored decks as did virtually every model that followed. I would be highly skeptical that the 422 or 424 did not have balsa coring. From what I have seen, Pearson's workmanship on these cored decks was not all that great so a careful survey would be warranted.

Most of Bristols had cored decks as well. But some of them that were inherited from Sailstar had plywood coring.

Tom Maine's boat is typical of many early fiberglass boats whose decks and houses were built the way that wooden boats were built with carlin sand deck beams.


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## bobperry (Apr 29, 2011)

There was a boat built in Taiwan. I think it was called the KING's LEGEND 41. Reportedly an Eva Hollman design. It had solid decks. I stopped by the yard one day. It was a filthy yard. There was a deck, right side up, resting on saw horses. The deck was so flexible that it draped over the saw horses like objects in a Salvador Dali painting. It was crazy. I took a photo of it and considered publishing it.


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## newhaul (Feb 19, 2010)

The early islanders are solid glass except in the cockpit seats they have plywood fully encapsulated on the horizontal surfaces at least my 1967 24 and the 1968 28 that that my folks had.


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## Markwesti (Jan 1, 2013)

Westsails have cored decks . And some had teak exterior decks, obviously if not maintained that caused trouble . But like anything else , there are no problems only solutions .


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## StormBay (Sep 30, 2010)

Our Hans Christian 41 has 3/8" solid glass decks with 1.5" glass stringers every 12" I know that not all Hans Christians are built this way and that its not even consistent within each model. I drilled a bunch of holes in our decks in a bunch of different areas when I was in the process of redoing them, and no core any place! The decks are stiff as can be as well (we did have a problem with the top layer of chop strand matt de-laminating, but thats a different story all together) Our boat is exceptionally dry with no sings of leaks in the past. When we were looking at boats we also looked at HC33's, and the ones that did not have cored decks (coring was apparently only used during specific years of construction) were very dry as well.


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## mitiempo (Sep 19, 2008)

The Spencer 35 originally had solid glass decks without any beams underneath. The 35 Mk II had cored decks. The uncored decks are solid but a bit springy on the foredeck.

Very few boats of any size have decks that are not cored.


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## Strait Shooter (Sep 28, 2011)

I have an Orca version of an Ingrid that has solid fiberglass decks.
I absolutely love them.


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

bobperry said:


> There was a boat built in Taiwan. I think it was called the KING's LEGEND 41. Reportedly an Eva Hollman design. It had solid decks. I stopped by the yard one day. It was a filthy yard. There was a deck, right side up, resting on saw horses. The deck was so flexible that it draped over the saw horses like objects in a Salvador Dali painting. It was crazy. I took a photo of it and considered publishing it.


I think a lot of the early English (and Commonwealth) designs had uncored decks. Instead they tended to have closely spaced glassed in frames and or hat sections.

That is actually how most of the deck area on my South African built Farr is constructed. I do have some coring in the cockpit sole, locker lids, and seats. Oddly, some of the interior components are cored as well. The other odd part is that the NZ and Aus versions of my boat, have fully cored decks. The drawings seem to show it both ways.

Jeff


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## TomMaine (Dec 21, 2010)

Jeff_H said:


> I think a lot of the early English (and Commonwealth) designs had uncored decks. Instead they tended to have closely spaced glassed in frames and or hat sections.
> 
> Jeff


True, Jeff. My boats hull and decks were formed at the Hallmatic yard in the UK. Hatframes were used to connect all the chainplates to the hull.

Hallmatic was one of the new 'glass' pioneers, back then. Solid decks were a bad idea and they learned quickly in that era but the old decks have mostly survived.

My old boat has actually 'settled' a bit, like an old house. Solid decks can handle a little of that.


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## bobmcgov (Jul 19, 2007)

IIRC, the English-built Contessa 32s had uncored decks; most of the Canadian Contessas used various core materials, including (extensively, sadly) plywood. The Rodgers C32 decks were known for oilcanning a titch, which theoretically can lead to gelcoat crazing and eventual glassfiber fatigue, but never heard of much trouble in real-world use. It's a *stiffness* issue more than a *strength* one: you can obtain a much stiffer deck at a much lower weight using cored composites than with solid layups. But then you need to be scrupulous about isolating your deck hardware from the core.


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## mad_machine (Dec 16, 2012)

mitiempo said:


> The Spencer 35 originally had solid glass decks without any beams underneath. The 35 Mk II had cored decks. The uncored decks are solid but a bit springy on the foredeck.
> 
> Very few boats of any size have decks that are not cored.


my Sea Sprite 23 has solid decks.. they are quite springy. first time I stepped on the foredeck, I thought it had serious rot problems the way it gave under my feet.

51 years old, no leaks at the seam between hull and deck


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## christyleigh (Dec 17, 2001)

seafrontiersman said:


> Any other vessels out there built with solid glass decks?


Nauticats.


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## kwaltersmi (Aug 14, 2006)

Wow...surprised how many examples of non-cored (i.e solid) decks are out there!


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## mitiempo (Sep 19, 2008)

kwaltersmi said:


> Wow...surprised how many examples of non-cored (i.e solid) decks are out there!


Mostly either older or European boats.


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## vashonmike (Nov 18, 2012)

My 1970 Discovery 37 sailboat has a solid fiberglass deck with ribs and spray foam under 

Michael


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## mitiempo (Sep 19, 2008)

vashonmike said:


> My 1970 Discovery 37 sailboat has a solid fiberglass deck with ribs and spray foam under
> 
> Michael


That's interesting because Discovery was known for their foam cored hulls.


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## vashonmike (Nov 18, 2012)

yes mine as well
The foam cored hull looks more like a regular fiberglass hull with insulation foam sprayed on then smoothed and glassed over to protect it. Just not glassed over under the decks. The same foam is rough above the waterline and sanded smooth under the decks. It is sanded and glassed over below the waterline.


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## hriehl1 (Aug 8, 2007)

1968 Hinterhoeller HR28 has no core.


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## Victor Lopez (Aug 8, 2021)

mitiempo said:


> That's interesting because Discovery was known for their foam cored hulls.


the only boats I know with solid fiberglass hull and decks are the CSY. I bought one because of that and also because they havs protected rudders, not rudders hanging in the water
with nothing ahead of them, except the far away keel, which is also hanging by a few bolts that with time "get tired" and, in a few cases, let go. If the bolts do not let go, the hull itself lets go, either event results in exceptionally quick and irreversible capsizing. CSYs have keel and ballast integrated into the hull. Yes , they tend to "sweat" in cool weather at night, yes they are not fast.
It seems to me most boat builders/designers are too interested in boats that win races and are also cottages. I rather have a boat that loses the race to win and the race to the bottom.


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## trplstks (11 mo ago)

Victor Lopez said:


> the only boats I know with solid fiberglass hull and decks are the CSY. I bought one because of that and also because they havs protected rudders, not rudders hanging in the water
> with nothing ahead of them, except the far away keel, which is also hanging by a few bolts that with time "get tired" and, in a few cases, let go. If the bolts do not let go, the hull itself lets go, either event results in exceptionally quick and irreversible capsizing. CSYs have keel and ballast integrated into the hull. Yes , they tend to "sweat" in cool weather at night, yes they are not fast.
> It seems to me most boat builders/designers are too interested in boats that win races and are also cottages. I rather have a boat that loses the race to win and the race to the bottom.


contest boats built in the Netherlands have solid hulls and decks


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