Formax, carbon fibre and speciality composite reinforcements developer, has provided its custom carbon fibre fabric to Gold Coast Yachts to achieve the challenging weight and engineering specifications for the B53 high-performance racer/cruiser.

The composites firm’s newly appointed director of business development for North America, Philip Steggall, assisted the boat builder with the project.

Being a very fast racer for competitive sailing, the B53 is a high-tech, well-equipped cruiser with an overall length of 16.3 m. It has a displacement of 5500 kg, including most equipment. Gold Coast Yachts, located in Christiansted on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, is building its main structure.

Gold Coast Yachts called in Formax’s Philip Steggall, who is highly experienced in all processing techniques, to help decide which manufacturing process would achieve the laminate properties set out by the designer for building the cruiser.

There followed a three-month testing program in which Formax fabrics were used to build test panels using wet bagging and infusion techniques. The results from laboratories in the US and Canada demonstrated the superior properties of the infused panels, including a 15 per cent increase in compression strength, and Gold Coast Yachts was able to prove that it could meet the B53’s weight, strength, and stiffness specifications using infusion, FORMAX said in a press release.

Gold Coast Yachts’ president Rich Difede said, “The Formax fabric allowed us to get air out ahead of the resin front, instead of entrapping it within the laminate, as is done with wet bagging, and even with prepreg. That’s how we hit the target weight, as well as the strength requirement, for this boat.”

Gold Coast Yachts is an international multihull yacht designer and custom boat builder. (GK)