105' Nigel Irens Trimaran
Design Concept
The 105’ trimaran Sodeb’O designed by Nigel Irens and partner Benoit Cabaret, was commissioned by French multihull skipper Thomas Coville, to attempt to break the Single-handed Around the World record of 71 days, set by Ellen MacAthur aboard B&Q Castorama in 2005.
Built by Boatspeed Performance Sailcraft in Gosford, New South Wales, the structural materials were supplied by ATL Composites.
Construction
AIREX® R63 structural foam, used in the construction of the hull and floats, combines very high elongation and excellent bond strength. Extremely damage tolerant, R63 is an exceptional core for dynamically loaded and shock absorbing structures, such as Sodeb’O.
Other products used in the hull construction included AIREX® C70 and selected densities of BALTEK® end grain balsa products. The combination of core materials were chosen to meet Sodeb’O weight targets, stress and impact loads and other design parameters.
Boatspeed used ATL’s unique KINETIX R240/H341 wet-preg epoxy system to optimize the mechanical properties of the carbon laminates. Fibreglass impregnating equipment was used with this long open-time system, followed by cure under vacuum at relatively low temperatures, to meet the weight fraction required in the designers specifications. A selection of TECHNIGLUE adhesives were used for various secondary bonding applications in the construction.
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