Seabuddy:

Carver Construction

What stiffens the underside of any given fiberglass liner?

Thanks, Al. What model year did they go to "no wood below the waterline" for hull, hull structure, and small brackets/parts?

Earliest linered cockpits simply laid the 'glas on top of the usual wood. Which made the boats even heavier. But I think the newer designs are on top of the stringer grid?

In any event, the presence of the liner is a barrier against the water that used to soak the wood floor. So I would expect a liner to reduce the rot problem, a lot.

Kelly

A fiberglass cockpit floor needs something bonded to it/inside it to stiffen the expanse. Some use stuff that is said to not rot, others? Most production made fiberglass boats use fiberglass that will let in water over time. Liners certainly are a step up from some other stuff, but its also what is inside, IMO.

Thanks for all the QUICK replies!

Turns out that all the knowledge learned in this thread wasn't required for last nights trip to the boat show, our friends who were going to replace the Crownline will have to keep it for awhile, not in their budget at the moment since the need for the new wheels they bought last week superceded the need for a new boat. Their parents almost walked out with a new 25' Bennington, but even after being told point blank "sell it for *this price* and we'll sign papers right now", the dealer wouldn't budge on price more than $500, and then acted like he'd be cutting off a foot. I was dumbfounded that he wouldn't come down a couple grand off the price of a $48,000 boat. Oh well.

Well, we tried.

As I tried to tell you on the other thread, Bennington is very proud of their boats. Try other 'toon brands, they all offer premium packages.

Kelly

They were actually hoping to find a Premier dealer at the show, but I'm not sure there's one around here. The one big one with the flattened center log and a V8 is impressive to watch (the video). The upper Benny's are now using an oval-shaped center log, which gives the curvature of a 32" diameter log, supposed to accomplish the same thing as the Premier. They looked at several others, didn't care for what they saw.

Carver has been building fiberglass stringers on their boats 35ft and larger since 1999, and since at least 1997 (maybe earlier), balsa in the hull only above the waterline for 36ft and larger boats (I think for smaller boats like mine - the hull is solid fiberglass above and below the waterline).

I recall on my Vista, being able to see the balsa coring in the fiberglass when looking on the inside of the raw hull sides above the waterline; so I am pretty sure I can identify it - and I have not seen any (yet) on my Carver.

Even on my boat, the main salon flooring is supported above the engine room by a massave welded aluminum grid frame made from 2" square channel. It attaches to cleats molded to the inside fiberglass surfaces on the inside hull.

A wood floor is attached to the top of the frame. This is inside the boat in the salon where there is little chance of water damage.

While my Sea Ray has no wood in the hull, stringers or transom, you will find wood sandwiched in the decking and probably in other places that need strength as well. And I imagine many of today's boats are built that way

Just came out of the Detroit Boat show and four winns and sea ray salesman were claiming no wood.The only 100% wood free runabouts were Bryant and Caravelle.Master craft is wood free in the Inboard market for sure.What they should of said was that the hull and stringers were no wood but we use wood in other parts of the boat

Wood, where located in the hull, deck, stringers/structure, brackets for...

Mastercraft

Sea Ray

Four Winns

and...

From a factory representative or a dealer representative?

If the floor/deck is the concern, Cobalt does not use wood for their deck. Their decks are constructed out of a honeycomb-like material that is very strong.