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After trying to find any evidence that balsa is an inferior core, I gave up. Seems nothing comes close. Also found that I did not understand how a core material worked. Shear is what makes the core stiff and the shear modulus of balsa is far and beyond any synthetic material I could find. I'm sure this is not news for most of you but I had to do my own research. And dubber, thanks for the vacuum bagging tip. Looked into that which led me to vacuum infusion process. Dry layup and I can apply a deep vacuum which will remove all moisture from balsa before introducing resin. So that's where I'm at. I've spent a lot of time looking into VIP-watching YouTube videos, reading tutorials, ect. Has anybody got any experience with this? My plan is to go with 10oz glass against the hull to help with resin infusion between balsa and hull, 12mm infusion grade perforated 3M balsalite, layer of 10oz glass, second layer of 12mm same balsa, another layer of 10oz extending up to the stringer cores, 12mm balsa stringer cores, and a final layer of 10oz to finish. Tips? Suggestions? Is 10z glass heavy enough? Does anybody see any problems with the layup? Got the rest of the rotten balsa out today and hope to get the inside of the hull cleaned up tomorrow. I'm going to run the layup past some of the experts at the composite websites and see what they say. It'll be at least a few weeks at best before I do this.

http://nida-core.com/english/ can this be used bellow the water line,? iv been making a deck with it for my baja, the stuff is a dream to work with,, i dont know if it can be used inplace of balsa tho dok? dubbs? anyone know..

Boomer, I'm the furthest thing from an expert but from what I've read, vacuum infusion can't be used with honeycomb cores because the cells fill with resin. I am going with infusion because apparently there is skill involved with hand layup cores and I have no experience. I am actually thinking about laying up and executing a 1 ft wide cross section and then grinding it all out to check for voids and resin starvation. It will waste material but i need to be sure before I attempt the whole thing. I'm also going to add a 4 mm layer of coremat against the hull because of the irregularities from grinding and the lack of thickness. I think the core must have been laid when the hull was made because there is precious little glass left after grinding out the balsa. So thin that I don't think the hull would have come out of the mold undamaged.

Revised layup:
Hull-3mm soric xf-3X 36oz stitched triaxial(approx 1/8" wettted)-12mm infusion grade perforated balsalite-3X 36oz stitched triaxial-12mm infusion grade perforated balsa-3X 36oz stitched triaxial. This would be the center section. The strake cores will get soric-triax-balsa-triax. I have to find out resin quantity requirements-don't want to run out in the middle of it. Coremat is not designed for infusion and woven fabric is also not suitable for infusion. Apparently the infusion grade balsalite acts as a suitable flow medium.

Jesus....I wanna see pics when this goes down.

x2 this is gonna be one solid charger, thank you for posting all of this,, it makes me want to stuff my baja into a wood chipper and start again

im a moron i didnt read the link i posted,, it says in bold letters "cannot be used below water line". .. carry on

Dok, do you think its overkill? I've tried to find a ratio for skin-to-core thickness but have not had much luck. I've got a book coming-"composite basics 7th edition" which i'm hoping will shed some light on what the skin thickness should be. What I ground out of the boat was 1/2" thick in a lot of spots and seemed way to thick. Epoxy ain't cheap. I want maximum strength/ minimum material. Using the material calculator on the fiberglast.com website shows me needing around 34lbs of resin. I sent them an email to find out if the calculator was wet layup or infusion. Infusion uses less resin so i'm hoping that number will come down slightly. Materials for the core are right at a grand right now. Ouch! Planning on having my rear seat tray on standby to use any excess mixed resin leftover from the infusion. Gonna buildup some thinspots/ goof holes in the hull tomorrow. I've got to get the details of the core stack worked out so I can order the materials.

Oh yeah, forgot to ask. I'm thinking that if this goes well, i should be in the water in a few months. You'll b freezing up there by then but I would like to bring the boat up to gravenhurst next summer. I can get a free ride on Amtrak Auto Train to Lorton, Virginia which is 10 hours south of gravenhurst. The wife has been bugging me to see niagra falls which is right on the way. When is the best time to come up, see some racing, and show the DL her roots:))) I work best when I have a timeline.

Best time to visit Muskoka??? Summer! Lol seriously, it's beautiful here year 'round, but summer's when it's at. Keep an eye on the race/show schedule for next year. Or, there's quite a few of us in the area who should be getting together for a meet as well....