1998 225 hull contents

[axel195]

i am currently looking at purchasing a 1998 225 explorer.i would like to know how much wood was used during the build process of this hull ?
 I have been checking out seaswirl stripers of the same year.word is there is little or no wood in that hull design.

[Capt. Bob]

Well there's wood in the EX.

You will find it as a coring in the deck (often end grain balsa), cabin areas and helm. There might be a little in the transom section also but the main transom (engine mounting) was usually poured. You may find a model that has a wood transom but that would only happen if the pour material was not available during the production run. Since we see little of this, it appears to be the exception rather than the rule.

[Capt. Bob]

Also, by the mid 90s, Aqua touted their composite core construction as the assembly of everything below deck. Always known for the fiberglas stringer system, they now eliminated wood from the transom and other areas. Must have worked fairly well because we have seen little, if any re-builds of these Genmar hulls. I know nothing about the Seaswirl hulls but once moving, the EXs performed very well and were IMHO the best riding (along with the Ospreys) hulls they ever made.

[wingtime]

Late 90's is when most manufactures started switching to composite construction.  The main reason why is more affordable composites were becoming available.  There is some wood in the deck and mostly the cap portion of the boat.  The hull including the stringers and transom should be all composite.  To be honest unless a previous owner did something stupid like drill holes in the deck or something without sealing them we just don't see any core rot issues with the 225/245/250 Explorers.  My buddy was looking at some Seaswirls.  He ended up with an Aquasport.  I think the Aquasport is a more solid hull.