It seems that catamarans have become the newest hot toys of the wealthy. Where they would once sport gold chains, they are now sporting carbon fiber. I found the most amazing example of this recently. A carbon fiber hull that is apparently to be kept “bright”, that is no paint. It is a HH66. The design goal apparently is to show everybody at any marina or mooring that they are the baddest alpha male sailor there is. Forget UV degradation when you can be that cool.
I see several interesting engineering flaws in this peacocking. In the tropics black surface temperatures of 160F (70 C) are not uncommon. That surely rules out room temperature cure epoxy. Typically high temperature epoxies have very little stretch to failure, like carbon fiber. Combined, you have a very brittle laminate.
Especially if foiling, light is cool. The part that makes carbon so attractive is that it is so strong; not much is needed. Combine brittle laminate with very thin layups and you have a damage magnet.
In the picture it looks like it is a balanced 0/90 layup. As I have noted so many times, long slender hulls do not have such layups if being done efficiently. From the pattern, it looks like it is woven. If so, it looks far cooler than a knitted or uni stack, but is not as strong. Clearly looking cool is more important than good engineering here. Gold jewelry by any other name. “I am bad, bitches, pay attention.”
