Balsa coring questions

[Foreverunstopable]

I've read the Albin 25 has no wood coring material at all and is solid fiberglass.

Is that true?

In contrast it's my understanding the Albin 27 has balsa coring in the deck and coachroof.

Anyone out there know for sure?

[DesertAlbin736]

I just recently changed out an old non-working Nicro solar vent on the coachroof of my 1971 A25. The new day/night units require removing the deck plate fitting from the old one and installing and bedding the new one in the same hole. You can't just drop the new one in and re-use the old deck fitting. I could be wrong, but the coach roof coring appeared to be some sort of foam material. I know a lot of boats of that era and later used end grain balsa reinforced with plywood in places where fittings were attached. The A25 forward cabin coach roof is 1 inch thick. 43 year old boat and the decks all seem solid with no flexing or hollow sounds when tapping.

[Foreverunstopable]

Desert, that's good to hear.

Does anyone know if the Albin 27 FC deck and coachroof has wood or balsa reinforcement?

[denchen]

I fitted a small Houdini to the roof of the forward cabin of my Albin 25 and it was cored. The roof in totally over one inch thick. A while ago I fitted a speed impeller through the bottom of the hull, and there was no coring and was about 8mm solid glass.

[tego]

Foreverunstopable, My '87 27FC wheelhouse roof has balsa coring, as does my deck and hull. That said, I've had no issues with this and believe that those that have had problems just didn't know how to bed their hardware. My previous boats (42' sail and 44' trawler) were good also. Don't be afraid of balsa coring if the PO knew what he was doing regarding boats. I believe some of the earlier 27's were solid hulls.

[tego]

Unstopable, I forgot to mention that on my boat, every location for a cleat or thrudeck fitting has marine plywood coring. Same goes for points where something is to be mounted (lights, stanchions etc.). The '87 model appears to have been very well thought out and constructed.

[NickScheuer]

Last winter I removed all the deck and cabin exterior fittings fom our Albin-25 for repainting. The core material is PVC foam , either Airex, ir Divinicel (or whatever the alternate choice is that sounds similar). My two prior boats had Airex cored decks and were both very satisfactory. Any water that may get into an Airex core won't lead to rot.

[Capt Ram]

my 1990 27, bult in November had basla deck and I just replaced it with 3/4 marine ply covering it with 24 oz bi axael cloth and expoxie on the top side , 3 coats resen on bottom

[don123]

I believe some of the earlier 27's were solid hulls.

I have a very early '84 27FC (hull #16) and the hull is cored with foam (verified when I installed a new thru-hull) and the deck and coach house roof are cored with balsa, also verified with my modifications in several places

Don