Catalina 426; cored hulls?

If I recall, these were the old Uniflite molds that were purchased by Chris Craft? In that era, coring was mostly used in racing applications, but it was balsa based, not foam. Hard to say if Chris Craft adapted the technology in production so soon, but I would be doubtful.

The mid to late 80's 42' Chris Catalina MY's are popular boats here on the Chesapeake. I have sold many of them over the last 25 years. It's been my experience that they survey well. I know of no big chronic issues. The selling points are the terrific livability of the layout - typically with 2 nice center line double berth staterooms, a teak saloon, well equipped spacious galley and dinette, bath tub/shower in the master head, and the nice aft deck with a hard top. The best news is that in the current market, these boats are at rock bottom bargain basement prices. Just a few years ago the gas powered models sold easily in the $125K range and diesel powered versions went for $175K. Today, you can snare a decent gas boat for $40K and a diesel for $75K. IMHO that's a lot of boat for the $$.

Virtually every boat in that size range has a core of some type in the decks. The only problem would be if someone added something and didn't seal it correctly or failed to re-bed some of the deck hardware.

I have had a number of them surveyed with clients as well with really no trouble spots that aren't owner related.

No, not on the Chris. Certainly not like on the 40 Silvertons of the same era. You can mostly tell what you need to know about a cored deck by walking around on it. If you feel softness under foot, then you know that the seller has a problem that needs to be addressed. It's been my experience as an observer on lots and lots of marine survey inspections, most all cored decks have some moisture. The question becomes whether this causes a structural concern. One must try to have reasonable expectations relative to the big picture in a + or - $40K motor yacht. Deck core problems, unless they are really major will not prevent insurance coverage. In this price range, buyers tend to focus on problems that will make the boat sink, catch fire or explode. Once that's out of the way, focus tends to move to more important items such as proper operation of the Air Conditioning, TV/Stereo and the Icemaker.