The Najad 355 employs epoxy composites,

Trends in marine
composites
George Marsh and Amanda Jacob review recent projects
which illustrate some of the latest trends in the use of
composites in the marine applications market.

or a sign that carbon composite is had been out of production since the origi- produced in carbon/epoxy composite rather

F making its mark in production yachts

as well as in upper echelon perform-
ance vessels, one need look no further
than the re-birth of Westerly Yachts.
A group of yachtsmen and composite
experts have combined to revive the Westerly
brand, once a byeword among sailing enthu-
siasts for rugged and dependable cruising and
racing yachts. Until recently, Westerly Yachts
nal Portsmouth, UK-based company became
insolvent about seven years ago.
In 2005 three engineers from Slovenia,
who had worked together as New System
Yachts, joined forces with three other men
who had acquired the intellectual property
rights to the Westerly range and much of the
tooling. Their aim was to revive the Westerly
name by re-launching selected models, but
than the previous glass/polyester.
Their first product, a carbon reincarnation
of the once-popular GK35 from the board of
designer Ed Dubois, has turned heads wher-
ever it appears. The sleek black and silver
hull is a shining example of carbon appeal,
especially as the quadraxial fabric used has a
pleasing geometric regularity, which has been
carefully maintained in the lay-up process. By

22 REINFORCEDplastics February 2007 0034-3617/07 ©2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

reducing hull weight and locating a 1.25 ton
lead bulb keel 2 m down on a tough stainless
steel fin/strut, and by adding a modernised
rig, the company has greatly improved the
performance of the GK35. ‘Stunning sailing’
was how Practical Boat Owner expressed it in
a January 2006 boat test report.
The trick has been to accomplish this
without making the product unaffordable to
its intended public. By building the yacht in
Slovenia and sourcing from there a carbon
fabric produced from low-cost precursor,
it has been possible to price the craft at
£109 000, not excessive for a contemporary
35 ft carbon boat. Moreover, ‘New Westerly’
recently launched a variant of its first model,
the GK35C, which thanks to a less compre-
hensive interior and equipment fit, is offered
at £89 900 in the UK market (albeit this
represents a launch discount for the first few
customers).
Composite fabricators in Slovenia are
currently moulding the fifth boat and, while
interest so far is mainly in Slovenia and
Croatia, UK orders are confidently expected.
The Esense, a 43 m high-performance sloop characterised by the innovative design both on deck and below deck.
Encouraged by the response so far, the young
company has embarked on a new model.
According to director Andrej Knega, this will
be a revival of the 25 ft Westerly Pageant,
similarly produced in carbon, modernised
and with a lifting keel rather than the original
fixed keel.
Precise details of the lay-up and materials
used for the yachts are proprietary but Knega
told Reinforced Plastics that the manufactur-
ing technology is a vacuum infusion system
first developed as an adaptation of aerospace
practice by New System Yachts. For each
hull, two layers of dry 416 g/cm2 quadraxial
(90/45/45/0) carbon fabric are first laid into a
single-piece female mould, followed by pre-
cut sections of expanded polyurethane core.
The core is a closed cell system of 80 g/m3
density and 20 mm median thickness, and
incorporates flow channels to facilitate infu-
sion. The infusion-grade epoxy resin system
is sourced from Italy. The inner skin, like the
outer, comprises two layers of quadraxial car-
bon. Initial cure and consolidation take place
under vacuum bagging at room temperature.
Feature
Once the hull is demoulded, it is subjected to
a 24-hour 80°C post-cure in an oven.
Bulkheads, frames and longitudinal
stiffeners are added, the bulkheads being of
24 mm marine ply. Extra reinforcement is
incorporated in the keel area to distribute
keel loads into the hull. Elements of the
interior are installed. Next the deck, produced
in carbon/polyurethane (PU) foam core
sandwich in a similar fashion to the hull, is
lowered onto the beam shelf formed at the
top of the hull, and secured with SP Spabond
adhesive plus screws. An Awlgrip protective
finish adds lustre to the smooth outer surfaces
of the yacht’s shell structure. An alloy mast
and boom are standard, but customers can
opt for a carbon rig at extra cost.
What a wally!
At the other end of the carbon yacht spectrum,
seriously rich owners competing to acquire
the biggest, fastest, sexiest yachts are beating
a path to the door of the unlikely named
Wally Yachts in Italy and Monaco. Though
February 2007 REINFORCEDplastics 23

Wally is well established in the 88 ft to 100 ft
bracket, its latest super-sailor is a whopping
143 ft long and arguably the most sensational
Wally yet. So perfect are the Luca Bassani and
Bill Tripp-designed lines of the Esense that,
from a distance on a calm sea, it is hard for
someone to decide if they are seeing a real
vessel or a futuristic model.
Wally owes much of its success to radical
design made possible by carbon construction.
A sharp, uncluttered minimalist look is
cultivated while the lowered after-deck with
full-width glazed picture window/entrance
in the adjacent main saloon provides Wally’s
trademark ‘terrace over the sea’ feature.
Freedom for the designers to accomplish all
this is allowed by the high shell strength that
carbon composite construction provides.
Wally yachts are generally moulded using
prepreg carbon/epoxy skins over Nomex
core, with added composite stiffening. The
hull of Esense has been moulded using a split
male mould, the two halves of the hull subse-
quently being bonded together at the centre-
line. Each half mould comprises marine ply
strips laid at ±45° over a plywood frame, with
an added epoxy skin faired and finished with
Duratec. The inner hull skin, laid up over
release agent, is made up of prepreg tapes
ranging from multiaxial 400 g/m2 0-90 and
±45° standard modulus up to 300-450 g/m2
high modulus unidirectionals – the latter
mainly on the bottom, on the bulwark and
in the chainplate areas. The skin was vacuum
bagged and cured at 65-67°C for 12 hours.
The hull core is mainly of Nomex ara-
mid honeycomb, though CoreCell styrene
acrylonitrile (SAN) has been used for the
high-stress slamming areas. Pre-cut sections
are of various densities and up to 50 mm
thick. Core sections were trimmed, dry fitted
and bonded with epoxy adhesive film under
maximum vacuum (95%). The outer skin is
made up of several layers of carbon sheet and
tape laid up over the core, and cured at 87°C
for eight hours, then 92-95°C for four hours.
Prepregs are sourced from SP (part of the
Gurit group) and the Advanced Composites
Group, with epoxy resins coming from SP
and local company Camattini.
Interior stiffening is provided by full and
part-bulkheads, many of them composite,
At just under 124 ft in length, the Sunseeker 37M ranks as one of the larger yachts produced using composites for its
hull.
along with transverse frames and longitudi-
nal stringers. The latter have been produced
by cutting recesses in the male mould and
laying up the carbon-skinned foam cored
structure into them. This ensures an exact
match with the hull contour.
The top of the hull moulding is turned
inwards as a flange so that the resulting
composite ‘L’ girder can stiffen the large hull
and help prevent flexure under rig and sea-
imposed loads. The carbon/Nomex sandwich
deck sits almost a metre down from the
upper edge of the moulding so that a large
bulwark is formed by the upper projection of
the hull. This enhances security on deck and
provides shelter for on-deck sun worship-
pers when the yacht is sailing into wind at
speed. Transverse hull frames are terminated
below the deck so that the bulwark shell is
left ‘clean’.
Structural engineers High Modulus
helped Wally develop this feature on a slight-
ly earlier design of Wally’s latest sailboat
generation, the Soto Acebal-designed Wally
130 – predicted to be the world’s fastest
upwind sailing yacht. Finite element and
related analysis, along with careful structural
detailing, has enabled the clean bulwark look
to be achieved with a laminate of very little
extra weight.
A spread of up to 84 000 ft2 of sail,
including a Wally/North 3DL moulded main,
drives the 160 tonne yacht at impressive
speeds. A 40 ton lift keel which locates the
torpedo bulb weight up to 19 ft 8 in below
the waterline when lowered helps secure
sparkling windward performance, even in
a light breeze. Keel loads are distributed via
substantial transverse and longitudinal stiff-
ening in the hull midships area.
Feature
The low-weight properties and visual
appeal of carbon are maintained throughout
the vessel. For example, Esense has a single
ultra high-modulus carbon mast custom-
built by Hall Spars, and even the main on-
board shower stall/bath is carbonfibre.
Epoxy vs polyester
Swedish boat builder Najad is building its
latest model, the 355, in epoxy materials as
opposed to the more traditional polyester
resins. Once the preserve of high-tech racing
yachts, epoxy materials provide enhanced
structural characteristics such as reduced
weight and increased strength.
SP has secured a three-year supply
agreement with the company.
The 355 combines SP's technology, Judel/
Vrolijk and Dick Young’s design and Najad’s
craftsmanship. Najad says that a high number
of pre-production deposits have already been
secured with first deliveries commencing in
Spring 2007.
Although more expensive than poly-
esters, SP says that epoxy resins have distinct
performance advantages over polyester and
vinyl esters in five major areas:
• better adhesive properties (the ability to
bond to the reinforcement or core);
• superior mechanical properties (particu-
larly strength and stiffness);
• improved resistance to fatigue and micro
cracking;
• reduced degradation from water ingress
reduction of properties as a result of water
penetration); and
• increased resistance to osmosis (surface
degradation resulting from water
permeability).
February 2007 REINFORCEDplastics 25
 Feature
The Sunseeker 37M Tri-Deck in London.
Larger structures
Refinements in today’s composite materials,
allowing for more strength, lighter weight and
increased design flexibility have landed com-
posite materials in places usually reserved for
steel. The transition has been seen in smaller
sporting boats, but with the introduction
of the Sunseeker 37M Tri-Deck Yacht this
January a new generation of 'super yachts'
are now sporting composite hulls.
When the Sunseeker 37M Tri-Deck
Yacht made its debut just one month ago,
it was heralded as a superior super yacht.
At just under 124 ft in length, the Sunseeker
37M ranks as one of the larger yachts pro-
duced using composite materials for its hull.
Manufacturing a hull of this size was eased
by collaboration between the Sunseeker engi-
neers and experts from Ashland Composite
Polymers. This resulted in a tailored Ashland
AME 6000® resin, supplied by Ashland’s UK
distributor GRPMS, being used to produce
26 REINFORCEDplastics February 2007
this vessel. The hull was constructed using
an open-moulding, hand lay-up technique.
The Ashland resin was selected because of
several attributes that helped in the yacht’s
production.
“The advantage of Ashland AME 6000
resin, a 100% epoxy vinyl ester resin, is that
it features low styrene content as well as
good surface cosmetics,” says Olli Piiroinen,
European technical service representative for
Ashland. Specially developed for marine use,
AME 6000 resin has received Lloyds Register
approval for use in marine applications.
Following two years of development,
major investment in new shipyard facili-
ties and establishing a highly specialised
work-force, the Yacht Division of Sunseeker
International presented this new model on
schedule. The second 37M Yacht is well under
way, the third hull is currently in mould
and Sunseeker says that further orders have
already been taken.
RTM
Fountaine Pajot produces more than 150
boats a year at its two facilities in France.
These are a mixture of power and sailing
catamarans with lengths of 11-23 m. With its
new Mahé 36, which made its debut at the La
Rochelle Boat Show last year, the company
is producing the entire deck and cabin top
moulding as a single-piece resin transfer
moulding (RTM) component. With an over-
all size of 11 m x 5.9 m this is believed to be
one of the largest components ever produced
using RTM.
Manufacturing this complex part using
matched moulds has been a major invest-
ment for the company. Fountaine Pajot
believes that this will be repaid in terms of
higher laminate quality, better surface finish
(on both sides of the moulding), increased
production efficiency and better working
conditions. The core material for the deck is
supplied by DIAB in kit form.

Saving weight aloft
Saving weight aloft is a holy grail for designers
of performance monohull sailcraft. Within a
given overall weight, every kilogram of weight
saved in the mast and rig can be matched by a
kilo added to the bulb keel, so improving the
yacht’s ballast ratio and hence its all-impor-
tant upwind sailing ability. Designers have
latched onto the weight saving possibilities
of carbon masts but, until recently, heavy
stainless steel wire or rod was retained for the
standing rigging. Carbon could, in theory, be
much more advantageously utilised in this
part of the rig than in masts since stand-
ing rigging experiences mainly tensile loads,
where carbonfibre is at its best. Carbon is also
highly regarded for its high fatigue tolerance
and stability under environmental exposure.
Composite standing rigging dates back
to at least the early 1980s when pultruded
carbon rods were experimented with. But
two issues that have dogged such efforts have
been stretch, or creep, over time; and the dif-
ficulty of engineering terminations that grip
the ends of the rigging shrouds, or ‘wires’,
effectively. Composite Rigging, a specialist
division formed by Southern Spars five years
ago, believes it has overcome these issues
with its Element C6 line of carbon composite
standing rigging. Each shroud is made up of
several small-diameter pultruded carbon-
fibre rods rather than a single large rod. Each
bundle of rods, laid alongside each other, is
held within a containing jacket, typically of
urethane-coated Spectra fibre. The multi-
ple parallel strand approach brings several
advantages, one of the most important being
the ability to terminate each shroud success-
fully with a compact fitting.
Essentially, each shroud is terminated
with a conical end fitting, aligned base out-
wards. This is held by a mating conical outer
sleeve, pre-installed on the wire, that pulls
over the shroud termination and screws to a
fixed screw-headed fitting in the deck or on
the mast. Any stretch developing over time
in the carbon shroud can be compensated
by tightening the terminal sleeve on its screw
thread, as with standard stainless steel wire or
rod rigging. Since the total load on the shroud
is shared among a number of carbon strands,
Composite Rigging's termination system.
the length of ‘wetted’ strand needed is short,
whereas systems relying on single pultruded
rods require long bonds. As a result, short
compact fittings have been achieved.
Composite Rigging makes the end of
each shroud conical by separating the con-
stituent carbonfibre rods and spreading them
over a cast epoxy cone inserted into the
end of the rod bundle. Heating and curing
the resulting termination results in a tough
carbon fibre-reinforced resin cone. An outer
prepreg carbon wrap is included to withstand
hoop loads resulting from tensile loads on
the shroud when the rig is in use. In setting
up the rig, a conical outer sleeve in machined
titanium, pre-located further up the wire,
is drawn down over the cone terminal and
screwed down to its matching fixed deck or
mast fitting.
This solution minimises the bending
stresses inherent in some alternative termi-
nation systems. Also, because increasing the
load on the termination pulls the mating
cones more tightly together, the resulting
‘wedge’ effect squeezes the carbon strands
more firmly into the epoxy cone, so improv-
ing grip on the shroud as a whole.
Advantages of the multiple carbon rod
approach include the ability to spool cable
onto drums for storage, and the ability to
specify as many rod strands as are needed
for a particular application, rather than hav-
ing to rely on the limited number of stock
sizes associated with single-rod rigging. This
makes Element C6 versatile and equally suit-
able for retrofit rigs and new custom rigs.
The construction method and termina-
tion process were first developed by the
Air Logistics Corp (ALC) of California,
which had produced similar elements for the
Feature
telecommunications industry. ALC licensed
the technology to Composite Rigging for use
in the yachting industry, and the Southern
Spars offshoot now produces Element C6 at
its Rhode Island factory. Each batch of the
base pultrusion is tested for strength, stiffness
and degree of cure to ensure that baseline
properties are maintained. Each finished arti-
cle is also proof tested to 50% of its predicted
breaking strength before it leaves the factory.
In many cases this is nominally 50% greater
than the maximum predicted working load.
Composite Rigging says that its system
enables carbon rigs, with stretch charac-
teristics equivalent to Nitronic 50 stainless
steel, to be produced at about 40% of the
weight of equivalent steel rod systems. When
installed on the Swan 100 Kora, Element C6
shaved almost 400 kg from the weight of
the rig, previously stainless steel, and ena-
bled two tonnes to be taken out of the keel
for the same stability. Race success for the
Wally 94 Y3K was attributed in part to use
of a Carbon Composites rig. The company
continues to carry out research aimed at fur-
ther enhancing its product and remaining
competitive against alternative non-metal
solutions, notably PBO (polyphenylene ben-
zobisoxazole) cable from organisations such
as Future Fibres and Navtec. ■
Westerly Yachts; www.westerlyyachts.com
Wally Yachts; www.wally.com
Najad; www.najad.com
Fountaine Pajot; www.fountaine-pajot.com
Southern Spars; www.southernspars.com
Sunseeker; www.sunseeker.com
February 2007 REINFORCEDplastics 27