What has become almost a trope at this point, the selling point of a boat being built with “absolutely no wood.. all composite construction”… needs to be addressed. While looking over a friend’s boat with him today, we noticed a couple soft spots in the deck. While my friend explained confidently to me that there was no wood in this boat, the soft spots in the deck were unmistakable. Long story short, after cutting the deck open, the following pictures are what I found. Both coosa board and divinycell foam coring were indeed there, and were both completely saturated with water and total delamination of the deck skin had occurred.
The point here is simple: Poor construction is poor construction. While these closed cell foam composite materials may absorb water at a slower rate than plywood, they absolutely DO absorb water, and the result is the same. The key to long-lasting construction is prevention of water ingress, regardless of the material in question.
