The Tough Choice That Is Easy to Make

In the Open 60 series, where speed is of the essence, boat designers and skippers will go to great lengths to ensure their vessels are as light and as fast as they possibly can be. SP has long been at the forefront of delivering materials and engineering that has helped push racing yachts to victory and by reducing the weight and optimising the performance of the materials used, the Dee Caffarri-skippered Aviva was no exception.

Launched in December 2007, the Owen Clarke-designed and Hakes Marine-built boat is currently preparing for the forthcoming Vendee Globe which commences on the 9 November 2008.

With skippers devoting such attention to adding or shaving even the smallest amount of weight off a structure, choosing the right materials is a real challenge. The Aviva Ocean Racing team opted for SP’s P-Foam for the build of Aviva, alongside SE70 prepregs and SA70 epoxy adhesive film.

P-foam was chosen for a number of reasons, most notably for its high ductility which offers incredible toughness and resistance to cracking. The high elongation properties of P-foam also make core shear in the laminate a near impossibility. The foam can elongate up to 65% in shear before failure occurs, making it one of the lightest and toughest laminate materials available, perfect for use in forward slamming and high impact areas.

The SA70 epoxy adhesive film, designed for bonding prepreg skins to honeycomb and certain foam cores, such as P-foam, was also used for its impact toughness, in addition to a high strain to failure ratio and consistent bond line thickness and weight properties.

Dean Pannett SP’s Head of Sales in New Zealand said: “When designing a boat that is going to be subjected to high impact slamming while at the same time trying to save weight, you have to be as precise as you can be about selecting the right materials. P-foam and SA70 epoxy adhesive are designed for that purpose and have the added advantage of being easy to apply, reducing the time of the build without sacrificing on strength or toughness.”