Don't do it! Plywood sucks up just as much moisture, expands and rots just the same, albeit a little more slowly. I had the plywood in my old trimaran get totally wet and delaminate. Terrible. If you are going to avoid balsa and you might do so for good reason, order up some CoreCell or Klegecell. Coosa might do the trick really nicely. Make yourself a big list, order it all at once and have it shipped to a depot. Then, with a boat or a truck or whatever will do the trick, get it all back to your yard all at once!
All this work and you don't want to be remembering the compromises you made!
Balsa Core $50 - Shipping to Alaska $131.
Coosa $141 - Shipping to Alaska $167.
Corecell $93 - Shipping to Alaska $110-224
Baltek At Amazon - Wont ship to Alaska.... Considering dumping Prime (Becoming more common)
Arrggg - And now you see my curse. Go find a bunch of moose antlers, tie them together and epoxy in place...
S/V Arctic Tern
Freedom 33
1981 - #37
Prince William Sound - Alaska
I bit the bullet and bought a 2x4 section of Balsa.
Today was dry fitting a pair of mock up Trojan Deep cycle house batteries. Only 210-amp but shall last for a while until lithium come down in price - I hope.
Attachments
Trojan 27 TMX Mock-up
20200705_095926_compress46.jpg (78.66 KiB) Viewed 4177 times
S/V Arctic Tern
Freedom 33
1981 - #37
Prince William Sound - Alaska
Preliminary wiring of batteries. Still need another cross member for the forward battery then straps over the tops. I left my 2x4 cedar out and after cutting the first one it started to rain.
The bottom fuse of the power post is for critical circuits. The remaining go thru the switch. Wire is Arctic Flex 1/0.
Once I get it how likely it I will put fire hose around chaffing areas, seal the voids and place a vent hose in the mix.
FYI - I have 1/4" (3-mm) of clearance between the top of the wing nut and the settee plywood.
Attachments
20200711_144042_compress71.jpg (119.3 KiB) Viewed 4067 times
Last edited by Sailing-61-North on Sun Jul 12, 2020 2:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
S/V Arctic Tern
Freedom 33
1981 - #37
Prince William Sound - Alaska
House batteries are in place. New tops for starboard settee done. Not screwed down completely since I still have more wire to run and I need to vent the battery space.
I did pull the 1-1/2 hose running from the head sink. Will reroute it to the head seacock since that is not being used anymore (composting toilet). Still waiting on parts to complete the 120-v.
Attachments
20200726_170823_compress18.jpg (84.99 KiB) Viewed 3778 times
20200726_170804_compress70.jpg (100.17 KiB) Viewed 3778 times
20200726_164723_compress32.jpg (104.3 KiB) Viewed 3778 times
S/V Arctic Tern
Freedom 33
1981 - #37
Prince William Sound - Alaska