Development of 33feet Class America's Cup Training CFRP Sailing Yacht for Marine and Leisure Applications

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current trends of composite applications in the marine and leisure fields and to study the development of 33ft class America's cup training CFRP sailing yacht. In the field of marine and leisure, composite materials have been just used to marine and leisure structures, recently. Especially, since the America's cup of sailing yacht racing has required the light weight and high mechanical performance to make a high speed, CFRP have been recognized as the critical material to construct the racing yacht structures. To establish the process of CFRP racing yacht construction, the design optimizations and production methods of carbon mast and CFRP yacht hull were discussed in this paper. Finally, the constructed CFRP sailing yacht exhibited high performance as the racing yacht through the sailing test.