Foam-cored sandwich yacht hulls are subjected to high core shear stresses during slamming events. As slamming is repetitive by nature, failures observed on boats may be due to fatigue. This study aims to investigate possible improvements to fatigue testing of both foam core materials and sandwich specimens. In general test set-up induces differences between the ways a material behaves in a test coupon and in a real application. One such difference is “edge effect”, as the material behaviour can change close to a free edge. For example, the micro-structure may have been affected by the specimen machining, which may influence failure initiation. This is exacerbated if the test set-up induces stress concentrations close to the edge. Another difference is that in a standard core shear fatigue testing by 4 point bending, the stress field is spatially static, when in a slamming event the stress field is spatially variable. Does the material react differently to a static and moving stress field? This study aims to develop a core shear test method replicating a moving stress field, free of edge effect. This paper presents the finding of the initial steps of this study: The edge effect has been investigated using modified loading fixture. The moving stress field has been investigated with a modified 4- point bending test using asynchronous loading. The differences in test results between the modified test methods and the relevant standard test methods indicate that both aspects affect measured fatigue life.