Gunboat's 'Sugar Daddy' is the Latest to Benefit from SP Composite Technologies

30 November 2009, Isle of Wight – Cape Town-based boatbuilder Gunboat enjoys a worldwide reputation for building lightweight, high-performance cruising catamarans on the cutting edge of technology. To do this successfully, the company utilises the latest and most technologically advanced materials available in the market place, and so has developed a long-standing relationship with SP, the marine business of Gurit. Their most recent collaborative project is the build of the Gunboat ’66: ‘Sugar Daddy’.

‘Sugar Daddy’, the second Gunboat 66’, is conceived as a pure sailing machine designed to take most of the creature comforts along for world cruising, combining luxury and space with speed. 

The composite build time on ‘Sugar Daddy’ was around 10 months and the boat is constructed with SP’s Ampreg 22 epoxy laminating system, while the structural bonding utilises Spabond 340LV adhesive. SP’s Corecell™ foam, the industry-leading structural foam core, is used in selected areas within the hulls, decks, cabintop, bulkheads, engine bases, rudders and dagger boards as it is suitable for dynamically loaded structures, and significantly, does not inhibit epoxy curing mechanisms.

Gunboat’s primary processes are vacuum bagging and epoxy wet lay-up with impregnator and all are male moulded.  When building the large components in the climate and environment of South Africa, it is important to have long working times, and this is one of the areas that SP has been able to support in particular, with its comprehensive range of five hardeners in the Ampreg 22 epoxy laminating system.

The long working times of the Ampreg 22 are of particular importance due to the sheer size of the structures/components that Gunboat build, and the low viscosity is of equal importance as it assists with thorough wetting out of the reinforcement fibres and has excellent air release properties. This assists with the impregnation of carbon and aramid fibres – the predominant fibres in use at Gunboat.

Brendan Rooken-Smith, General Manager at Gunboat said: ‘South Africa is a world leader in catamaran building, and quality is of utmost importance at Gunboat. Therefore we rely on the manufacturers of the products that we use in the build of our boats to be of the highest international quality standards, and our long-standing relationship with SP is testament to the quality products, excellent technical back-up and outstanding customer service that they provide.’

Four further boats are currently under construction at the Gunboat facility in South Africa and all use SP’s composite materials, which are supplied through SP’s South African distributor AMT Composites.