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It depends on the year. Our 1983 Plan C Cutter has a cored hull. Older hulls are solid. We only found a small area of delamination and had it repaired. There was no water intrusion or rot, it was probably a void in the lay up from the factory that we found after an extensive survey. Other than that we haven’t had any issues with it.
As for how to tell? Cored hulls typically have a transition somewhere along the side where the cored portion begins, if it is the same thickness all the way up it is more likely to be solid. You can also inspect around thru-hulls to see if they cut away the core and made it solid fiberglass. This would point to having a core.
As for opinion on a cored hull? If we could trade our hull for a solid core we might… but as long as the boat has been taken care of (i.e. regular haul outs, well installed thru-hulls) and a good hull survey doesn’t show any problems I wouldn’t make it a deal breaker. They are actually stronger per pound or lighter per unit strength depending on what the designers went for…
Regards,
Bryan Bywalec
S/V Pelican-----
Bryan Bywalec
S/V Pelican, Hull 209
Siren Engineering, LLC -
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Interesting, Discoverie is a ’83 cutter (#203) and it has a solid hull. I’ve either closed or put in enough new thru hulls to have a reasonable sample of the hull. And so far, no core encountered. In fact, in most places the hull is quite thick–3/4″ or so.
It depends on the year. Our 1983 Plan C Cutter has a cored hull. Older hulls are solid. We only found a small area of delamination and had it repaired. There was no water intrusion or rot, it was probably a void in the lay up from the factory that we found after an extensive survey. Other than that we haven’t had any issues with it.
As for how to tell? Cored hulls typically have a transition somewhere along the side where the cored portion begins, if it is the same thickness all the way up it is more likely to be solid. You can also inspect around thru-hulls to see if they cut away the core and made it solid fiberglass. This would point to having a core.
As for opinion on a cored hull? If we could trade our hull for a solid core we might… but as long as the boat has been taken care of (i.e. regular haul outs, well installed thru-hulls) and a good hull survey doesn’t show any problems I wouldn’t make it a deal breaker. They are actually stronger per pound or lighter per unit strength depending on what the designers went for…
Regards,
Bryan Bywalec
S/V Pelican -
Juniper is a 1983 ketch and she is a solid hull as well. I’ve replaced through hulls, but have also replaced fittings all around the hull and have never encountered core. She has 1/2″ solid glass on the thinnest areas (the transom) and much thicker solid glass on the lower parts of her hull. The deck does have a wood core, of course.
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Ours is a 1982 hull 186 and we have a solid hull. I would say between Brian’s answer above and mine, the change to cored hulls was sometime in 82 or 83.
Fat fingered hull number it’s really 187
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Effie is hull 198, built 1982. Thicker below the waterline with thinner squares around the through hulls. My surveyor said it’s coring and I agree – here’s a discussion about an 84 422 where the owner did a peel and could see the wood grain.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/254567961289930/permalink/3696710187075673/
A few of you above might be wrong about your boats.
Pearson 424 cutter - "Effie"
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Those of us who have early solid hulls (Sarah is #2) are aware of the significant flexing of the hulls in the long flat sections (forward and aft quarters). Possibly Pearson went to cored hulls late in the run to fix that problem. I guess it is also possible that some owners glassed in coring or plywood to stiffen those sections. That might appear to be a cored hull.
John
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I wonder if maybe it was optional or during a transition when they were building hulls at such a rate that some were cored and some not. I’m 100% sure my hull is solid not cored. I’ve patched up enough holes and been all over the boat enough to know. Now, the deck is cored for sure.
Is yours thicker below the waterline in the lazerettes? I’m trying to work this out myself, still not 100 percent sure on mine. It’s possible the 422 owner mistook glass fiber for grain or something like that.
John – my boat had the oil canning in the bow issue – hull 198. The thicker glass or core isn’t there, only below the water line.
Pearson 424 cutter - "Effie"
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I have a solid hull. I did a Bermuda crossing many years ago and got the snot beat out out of us on the way over. The flat bow sections flexed and caused the bulkheads to start separating from the hull. I had this fixed in Bermuda. Briefly, they re-attached the bulkheads and added between 3/8″ and 3/4″ glass on the inside of the hull inside the V-berth. No problems since but I’ve done no more offshore crossings since then. There’s a thread on this website somewhere that discusses the issue.
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The best place to look for a core on a Plan C is under the sink in the forward head. The portion of the hull under the water is cored and somewhere up the side it transitions to solid glass. You don’t want a core at the deck to hull connection. Replacing a thru-hull or other existing hole in the hull won’t tell you if it is cored as the core should be removed around all penetrations. I’ll post a picture of the tell tale transition tomorrow.
I think this is a good subject to introduce what I think is the next generation of this website. I’ve started a wiki for Pearson424s at wiki.pearson424.org. I’ll be able to record our conversations into a repository of information that is more searchable.
https://wiki.pearson424.org/index.php/Hull_Layup
I’ll be searching through the posts and adding information I find about the hull layup tonight and tomorrow. If you have drilled a hole in previously undisturbed parts of your hull and measured the thickness of the layup… send pictures and location?
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Bryan Bywalec
S/V Pelican, Hull 209
Siren Engineering, LLC
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