Still using balsa wood?

For years I've been reading that balsa wood isn't too good long term since water eventually soaks in. But is that still true with modern techniques?
Here is a 50' boat, built in Iceland, for those rough, cold waters, yet still has both balsa and plywood in it. What do you guys think?
"Hand-laid GRP
Isophtalic gelcoat and polyester resin
Anti fouling paint below waterline
Balsawood sandwich deck
Plywood frames, stringers and stiffeners"

 

I think it's fantastic.
Iceland-Norway list number 1.juny http://www.aflafrettir.is/en/frettir/grein/iceland-norway-list-number-1juny/5656

 

Interesting. Light weight coastal long liners.

Definitely not a selling point in any of the north American markets for fishing boats.

Ply bulkheads are still a thing from time to time but it's probably less than one out of 10. Wonder if an environmental regulation or tax on plastics is a larger contributing factor towards the use of those cores?

 

Thanks

 

Yes, seems strange, perhaps some factors like you mentioned.
But would you really call these boats 'coastal'? I though they went out all over the north Atlantic.

 

My understanding is end grain balsa is a technically superior core material.
Its weak point is sloppy build and maintenance standards,
The proper build techniques have been known for some time.

 

That's the Cleopatra 50 I think. Maybe a decade ago it was a demo boat for a auto bait and jig system that they sold in America as well. I think even in the literature it's referred to as a Mid Coast or mid-water boat. I know most of that lineup is for Nearshore hook in line jig and long line. I have no doubt that some of the bigger trefjar boats go offshore.

The little ones were from thr early 2000s when the cod rush was on and Iceland was the biggest player in cod. Gfc killed that, cod markets never fully recovered.

Back then the name of the game was to as quickly Harvest Cod for The Fresh Market as efficiently as possible in a place where diesel is three times that of North America.

 

Dave Gerr, in his Element of Boat Strength discusses, contrasts, compares, all the construction techniques is use at the time he wrote the book. He said, to paraphrase, you can make a good boat out of anything, given proper design and conscientious construction. Except ferrocement. That's just bad. Or so he said.

 

Love the caveat.

Few years back when the wife was still in school I'd find odd jobs in the yard to help augment income. Usually the worse it was the better the pay. Cutting out old steel and aluminum or demoing wet core decks and the like.

Had one particular set of jobs that lined up right before fish Expo. First was a demo of a supposed end grain balsa deck and cabin wall, second was the full demo of a waterlogged balsa core hull that has been written off. Salver couldn't use his normal excavator to break it down so we did it with saws. Felt like cutting through balsa and fiberglass soup.

About a week after we wrapped up the projects I was at fish Expo in one of the fiberglass displays still had types of Balsa. Apparently my comment about "who would want that", elicited a long detailed response on the "proper" build and use of Balsa components. Suffice to say not useful for me in any way shape or form. Maybe if I exclusively did light weight long line, jig or troll it would fit. Not for bouncing big heavy metal things off the deck.

 

Yeah. I went with fir or spruce core on my strip plank composite hull ( Dave Gerr's favourite) rather than foam core because there's just so much debris in the water here. Last winter we pulled out a fir tree that will provide us with an entire winter of firewood. On our beach at the moment there's one far larger.

 

Yes, Cleopatra 50. They say they can configure them for several uses, crew transfer, etc. One would assume that Icelanders would build them correctly, but who knows.

 

Hard to tell. I've owned some pieces of equipment made buy an Icelandic manufacturing company or at least designed in Iceland. Don't think they're still made there if they were back in the 90s when they first came out. I suppose it's like anything some of the stuff made was really good and some of the stuff was just sort of okay.

Very small population isolated from a lot resources most people take for granted across Europe and the Americas. Speaking to an Icelandic bike guy who was manufacturing a specific part. He was lamenting how difficult it was to get raw components for prototyping