Yachting's material men

By ROBIN BAILEY

The reliability of Volvo 60 yachts in this year's round-the-world race is an indication of how far composite technology and construction have come, says Richard Downs-Honey, managing director of High Modulus.

As acknowledged leaders in composite construction, High Modulus teamed with another Auckland company, Matrix Applied Computing, to complete the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) for the composite structures of the six Volvo boats created by Farr Yacht Design.

A second separate project for structural design was undertaken for the Laurie Davidson DJuice project by the British office of High Modulus.

Downs-Honey says the nature of the round-the-world race makes structural integrity of the Volvo 60 yachts critical - crews are often a long way from home if something goes wrong.

The 60-footers have deep keels and wide, dish-shaped hulls, and carry several tonnes of water ballast. The boats sail at high speed through some of the roughest weather around the globe, resulting in extreme loadings.

The Volvo 60 yacht is capable of planing at more than 30 knots downwind and the winner, Illbruck, set a speed record for a monohull over 24 hours - 473 miles (761km) at an average of 19.7 knots, says Downs-Honey.

The weather through the Southern Ocean and the Bay of Biscay was extreme, and the reliability of the boats during this race indicates that engineering, materials and construction were all sound.

Downs-Honey is no stranger to the complicated demands of composite engineering and materials. He has been a key member of High Modulus' team since the company was set up more than 20 years ago in a converted garage in Warkworth.

The company was started by the late Bob Rimmer. Brian Jones and Downs-Honey, armed with University of Auckland engineering degrees, were its first employees. From day one the company made an extraordinary impact on the use of composites in marine structures.

A watershed for the firm, and for the New Zealand marine industry as a whole, came with the 1986 America's Cup. High Modulus was instrumental in developing composite structures for New Zealand Challenge's 12-metre yachts, the world's first fibreglass 12-metres.

The conversion from alloy construction to fibreglass proved to be a technological revolution in the America's Cup, but it wasn't the only first that New Zealand's involvement in the cup would bring about.

High Modulus played a key role in construction of the 130ft K Boat (the big one that's outside the National Maritime Museum at the Viaduct), and after the 1988 cup regatta a committee was set up to look at making a new rule for cup yachts, with Downs-Honey as composite adviser.

High Modulus was involved in building NZL20, then in 1995 with Chris Dickson's Tag Heuer, and in 2000 with the engineering of the successful cup defender, NZL60.

The company is now Team New Zealand's exclusive supplier of strategic composite materials.

In two decades, High Modulus has become a typical New Zealand marine industry success story, developing into a highly respected global company with operations in Australia and Britain.

A sample of the company's present work is a 30m cruising yacht being built in Italy, 11 13.5m patrol craft for Malaysian customs, a 24m sport fishing launch at Austral Yachts in Whangarei, and structural design analysis for designers producing three different International Racing Class maxi yachts.

Experience with the marine industry supply chain - from engineering to materials and advice on construction techniques - has led High Modulus to develop its unique products to meet specific needs in engineering and construction.

Recently it launched a range of triaxial fibreglass fabrics to its own specifications, and fibreglass angle brackets that simplify bulkhead and joinery connections, floor supports and fixing baffles in tanks.

The work of our composite engineers is just as likely to be found in boatyards producing luxury sailing and motor yachts, hard-working commercial craft, or on production lines that demand consistent, high-quality, repetitive manufacturing processes, says Downs-Honey.

The racetracks of international sailing have provided invaluable experience and expanded the knowledge base of composite engineering.

The lessons learned have been applied to all other areas of marine composite construction - from megayacht yards to commercial fishing boatbuilders - where the advantages of well-engineered composites are increasingly valued.