Well Paul, all I can say is that I described what I saw accurately. Maybe you can explain it better that I. All I know is that, when my stern ripped above and around the 6" vertical strip down the center of the panel, the rip was in solid glass. The rip was approximately 12" long in an inverted arc shape extending into the panel several inches from the turned in deck flange. And there was no evidence of a step up from the solid glass to a cored section except at the 6" vertical strip in the center of the panel. You would expect the stern panel to be contructed similarly to the hull and deck panels where the transition from cored construction to solid glass at the flanges is obvious. This was not the case on #359.
The point is irrelevent if the issue is water ingression into the core. Everyone should check the condition of their stern anyway.
