viking hits whale

I just saw the thread with photos that showed the damage to the Viking that hit the whale. There was some speculation that a solid glass bottom would have fared better in the impac thereby implying that there is an impact problem with cored hulls. That is actually a misrepresentation of cored hulls that is fueled by the very effective marketing slant presented by the solid glass bottom guys.

Cored structures are stiffer and lighter but there are a lot more factors involvedwhen a cored structure has a catastrophic failure as the pictures show. The resin used has a lot to do with it and the photos show a breakdown in the resin. As with any engineering structure, all the components must be of the same physicals. It is obvious to me that the resin used was not matched to the panel deflection.

There was also commentary on strength vs stiffless. Solid glass is stiff, cored panels are stiff. Good laminate design has both. An then there is production techniques and qualtiy control.

Nuff said