what material is used for the stringers in an "all composite" boat?
what material is used for the stringers in an "all composite" boat?
" Composite " is a loose term thrown around a lot in boat advertising.
Any sandwich type material is a composite, plywood is a composite.
For bass boat construction, there are a lot of variables, Klegcell ( closed cell PVC foam ) Tri Core, Beet board, any type of manufactured foams can be made into composite board to be used in stringer construction.
Most are a PVC variation, or a mixture of glass fibers/foam.
Foam based honeycombs were used in some bass boats, but they tend to degrade under compression loads.
End core balsa encapsulated in fiberglass is a composite, and if done right and fully surrounded by the correct glass/resin ratio will outlast a lot of the foam composites.
Wood has better strength to weight ratio, a wood stringer, well constructed boat will outlast a mediocre constructed composite hull.
Some composite board will soak up water like wood will if the integrity of the board is compromised by a wrongly placed screw ( as in wood to .)
IF they get wet, they won't rot like wood, but they will delaminate, so they are not without there own set of potential problems.
Find out what material was used in the boat you are looking at and do research on the material, there is a lot of information available out there on most of the composites used in the boating industry.
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