"Balsa core" gets some bad press and I was interested in how it came into boating, especially C&Cs.
After some research, I learned: Making things with a core was first used by Egyptians three thousand years ago. Veneers of precious wood over a core of cheaper wood extended the use of precious materials. The practice was lost in the middle ages and re-imagined in the 1700's when furniture makers wanted to make things from scarce woods. Later in the 1920's and 30's, balsa core was being harvested in Equador by a French company trying to market it in France in the 20's and 30's. The Jewish French owners fled the Nazi takeover and emigrated to the US. Their balsa was later used by DeHaviland in England to build the famous Mosquito two engine bombers in 1941. Dehavilland built over 7700 of these 400+ mph planes using two Spitfire engines each. They used a plywood vaneer over an endgrain balsa core. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTsnMKzmdWs&t=613s The balsa industry lost a market after WWII but in the 70's, they convinced fiberglass boat builders to use balsa core and Hatteras sportfishing yachts were their first big client. Almost all boat builders eventually started using balsa soon after, including C&C, Pearson, Santana, Cape Dory, Columbia, Catalina, Hunter, Olsen, Saber, Schock, J-Boats, Beneteau, Jeanneau, as well as all the power boat builders, too. https://www.company-histories.com/Baltek-Corporation-Company-History.html Core comparisons: https://www.cruisingworld.com/how/inner-layer-core-materials-sailboat-construction/ I personally think C&C did an industry leading job to perfect the process using fiberglass and balsa core to build a lightweight and strong structure, but that is better covered by John Kelly Cuthbertson or others with more personal knowledge. Chuck Scheaffer, Resolute, 1989 C&C 34R, Annapolis
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