WHAT’S IN A HULL

The past 70 years have seen numerous revolutions in boat building, but many of the fundamental principles remain unchanged. While the aim is the lightest, stiffest and strongest structure possible, few campaigns have the resources to achieve that ideal. Even in the world of high-performance dinghies most must accept a realistic compromise.

Indeed, more than 40 years after the advent of carbon fibre, aside from the very highest echelons of the sport, the material is still mostly used in hull structures to reinforce high load areas around the mast support and keels of boats built predominately of fibreglass.

A notable exception is the International Moth class, particularly the UK-built Maguire Exocet boats, which took the top 17 places at last year’s world championship in Bermuda. The hulls are made from a sandwich of ultra-high modulus carbon fibre with a very thin foam core, hand laminated using Pro-Set epoxy resins and weigh only 10kg (22lb).

HISTORY OF COMPOSITE BOAT BUILDING

A technique to mass produce glass strands was discovered accidentally in the early