We originally began looking at balsa in order to find a material that we were comfortable with in regard to the bonds we were getting with prepreg skins. First, let's go back a little further to the last Whitbread race, when we built both a Farr boat and an Alan Andrews boat. We also used it in the water ballast tanks, in order to get the water as far outboard as possible. This was due to the fact that we could use a thinner balsa core along the side of the hull, thus marginally increasing righting moment.
Balsa has better mechanical properties than foam core.
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