Racing Yachts Lack Composites Experts

Racing yachts use composites as an integral part of their structure for increased speed and durability.

It comes as no shock to anyone in the composites industry that the marine industry has been hit hard by the economic conditions of this past year. But there are other forces that limit certain aspects of the marine industry from growing.

“Not only did the economy hurt the racing yacht industry,” says Jason Carrington, owner of Carrington Yachts Limited, a U.K.-based project management company who works with yacht designers and manufacturers. “But also the legal mess between BMW Oracle and defending champion SNG (Societe Nautique de Geneve), surrounding and effectively canceling the 33^rd America’s Cup.”

Carrington hopes that despite the legal jargon surrounding the America’s Cup, things get back on track soon. If they do, he says yacht building will once again commence, which will be great news for the yacht industry, and subsequently for the composites industry as well.

However, other problems stand in the way of progress. “There are very few people in the world that know how to use composites well,” says Carrington. “Similar to Formula 1 racing, we need someone who is good at using composites, and right now there is a lack of skilled people.”

According to Carrington, there are hundreds of boat builders in the U.K., but only a few he could trust to do the job correctly. “If someone phoned me up for a recommendation, I would struggle to think of a place that knows composites well. Even in the world, I’d say there are five yards that I’d trust. Two in New Zealand, one in Australia and two in the U.K. Composites are just very easy to get wrong.” he says. “How much laminate do you need? Is the material good enough? It’s a fine line to get a light yacht with enough strength behind it. Of course sometimes things break, even composites; we expect it. During a race, a team’s job is to push the envelope. Ff we sail around the world and despite harsh, pounding conditions, nothing breaks, we say the yacht is too heavy and go back to the drawing board,” says Carrington.

Not only is finding someone who knows what they’re doing an issue, but Carrington says that getting enough material in a timely manner can also cause problems in the manufacturing timeline. “If you want to specify a certain material, especially with ratios, getting the material can be a problem. This isn’t like chop strand where the manufacturer has it ready to go. They need a long lead time to do it, and even then, it’s not always exactly the same.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 8:00 am and is filed under Marine, Sports/Rec. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.