Van Der Stadt Offshore 8m sold fibreglass or cored?

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Stone Soup

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Maybe my internet searching skills are not the best, but I have scoured the internet first and I can't find an answer to this so hoping an owner or ex-owner out there could answer please?
Is the Van Der Stadt Offshore 8m sold fibreglass? Hull, topsides, deck, cabin, cockpit? Or are there any sandwich cored areas?
 
Thank you for your replies. Much appreciated.
I have owned several older trailer-able sailing boats over the years but the kids will soon be fledging the nest (they may need a slight nudge) and with more time on my hands, I am hoping to upgrade to something my wife and I can cruise a little.
Opinion seems divided on the pros and cons of owning ageing boats with balsa cored structures, however most of the boats I have owned needed leaking deck fittings to be re-sealed. My (albeit inexperienced) judgement is that leaking at the fittings is eventually inevitable and it would be one less thing to lose sleep about if I went for solid fiberglass.
I was looking at a nice Offshore 8m hoping that all the structures were solid fibreglass.
 
Stone Soup said:
Thank you for your replies. Much appreciated.
I have owned several older trailer-able sailing boats over the years but the kids will soon be fledging the nest (they may need a slight nudge) and with more time on my hands, I am hoping to upgrade to something my wife and I can cruise a little.
Opinion seems divided on the pros and cons of owning ageing boats with balsa cored structures, however most of the boats I have owned needed leaking deck fittings to be re-sealed. My (albeit inexperienced) judgement is that leaking at the fittings is eventually inevitable and it would be one less thing to lose sleep about if I went for solid fiberglass.
I was looking at a nice Offshore 8m hoping that all the structures were solid fibreglass.
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I think it would be solid glass. They say " Construction : FG" If it was cored I'm sure they would say so.

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/offshore-8-meter
 
coopec said:
I think it would be solid glass. They say " Construction : FG" If it was cored I'm sure they would say so.

https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/offshore-8-meter
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On the contrary, I seriously doubt they would mention cored construction, particularly if it only related to the deck etc. (as per Bajansailor's post above).

From my limited experience, it seems that most boats of that size and era would have solid GRP hulls paired with cored decks etc. Cored hulls would be the exception, and few would have solid GRP decks, etc., I believe.

Having owned a series of solid hulled, cored deck etc. boats, I think Stone Soup is worrying unnecessarily about the issue.

There is nothing inherently wrong with cored decks: in fact they are a great idea - GRP alone is not good for extensive flat load-bearing surfaces, and making a cored sandwich produces a very strong, relatively light structure easily built by the yards of those days. The problems have arisen because of a combination of balsa (as opposed to synthetic) cores with ignorance (both by boatbuilders and, especially, subsequent owners) of the importance of keeping water out of the core and how to fit through-deck fastenings such that any of the almost inevitable eventual leaks will not allow water into the cores. The latter is easily achieved once you are alert to the issue.

A boat whose deck etc. cores have widespread rot will be easily identifiable (creaking, bouncy decks etc.), certainly by an experience surveyor, and should usually be walked away from unless you know exactly what you are taking on. On the other hand, many (most?) boats of this age and type will have had some limited, localised water ingress into the core and exhibit some resulting small areas of flexing without loss of critical strength and integrity, and be perfectly usable and safe.
 
Stone Soup said:
Maybe my internet searching skills are not the best, but I have scoured the internet first and I can't find an answer to this so hoping an owner or ex-owner out there could answer please?
Is the Van Der Stadt Offshore 8m sold fibreglass? Hull, topsides, deck, cabin, cockpit? Or are there any sandwich cored areas?
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forums!

I believe the deck was cored, lots of Tyler-built boats used balsa cores in the deck construction.

This ad for an Offshore 8m includes the words "no softspots on deck", which would seem to indicate that it's cored.

Offshore 8 Meter Sailing Boat . for sale from United Kingdom
 
As an addendum to my earlier post, in my opinion -

1) There are lots of demonstrations on the internet and in books of how to properly make (or re-make) a through-deck fitting to ensure no water gets into the core. In my view this is essential knowledge and practice for owners of the very many cored deck boats out there. It is not difficult. You are essentially making a filled epoxy plug in the deck through which the fitting is bolted (or whatever). This also provides something solid for the bolt to grip, rather than risk crushing the core when you tighten the bolt (there should be solid timber in the core, rather than balsa, in the way of original through-deck fittings, but it is sometimes absent or not quite in the right place). The key element, sometimes overlooked it seems from some people's accounts, is to extend the epoxy plug beyond the hole in the GRP, so that the epoxy creates seals against both the underside of the upper (outside deck) GRP layer, and the upper side of the internal (e.g. cabin lining) layer of GRP.

2) Repairing a rotten core is, in principle, simple: you just need to remove the GRP layer from one side of the cored section, remove the remains of the core to the extent of the rot and replace it with new core of the same thickness, then replace the GRP layer you took out. In practice, however, it is often a gruesome job. It is easy enough to do for a small area if you can, or are willing, to do this from the outside (though bear in mind the rot in the deck may well found be more extensive than you originally suspected). This will probably require someone skilled to make a neat job of that part of the operation glassing the removed section back in place or creating a new outer layer (especially if you need to line up with or replicate patterns in the GRP). The real trouble comes if you want or need to do the repair from the underside - this is appallingly messy, requires masks and overalls because of the GRP and core material dust & debris, may well be difficult to access, and you will often be working over your head. Replacing an entire deck core, or a substantial part of one, would be a major undertaking, even if done from above, and one would want to be sure the value of the boat (monetary or otherwise) warranted it. On the other hand, I doubt that even 5% of cored deck boats have ever had or needed core repairs.
 
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