Longevity

[cat man do]

Also to add to Schoonerdogs comments I've see a few light boats that arguably faire better in the biff 'cause they bounced off or over things,and the core absorbed some of the impact. The whole idea of a multi {in my opinion} is that it has to be light, and I'll say it solid glass seems a bit "old school". Mind you ,hitting a bridge at 15 kn would stuff anything I'd reckon.

Steel stronger than solid glass,but we don't build from that either. Why, too bloody heavy.

Look at my pics. 4700kg [hopefully less] 50 ft cat when it hits the water. A lot of production boats would be twice or more than that because polyester resin is cheap, and hosing boats out with a chopper guns is easy. But if thats what gets you off.......

Dave

[Moby Dick]

[quote= but every catamaran out there which has been made in the last 20 years has foam or balsa cores above the waterline and solid glass below the water line....[/quote]

Not quite true. Lagoon 390 and 410 are solid glass above and below waterline.

I have a feeling FP and Leopard are cored below water

[Talbot]

Wildcat certainly appear to be

[schoonerdog]

From the manufacturers web site.

Lagoon 410
Construction:GRP sandwich with vinylester resin and balsa and foam core.Privilege GRP foam sandwich

Broadblue topsides and deck incorporate an end grain balsa core.

The standard for any modern catamaran is that they are solid glass below the water line and foam or balsa above.

Go to multihull-maven.com for quick comparisons between builders.

Where they very is whether they use things like reinforcements of kevlar in their stress points, carbon fiber cross beams and structural elements, etc.

Either way, unless hit by something catastrophic or fire, to answer the thread subject, I don't think they have any limits on how long they last. Considering that our boats are made up of glass and plastic, both of which will last over 1000 years stuck in a landfill, we shouldn't worry .

The real issue is what you do with an old boat to get rid of it!