High-performance composites: application examples

The 19-meter ELF Aquitaine III trimaran required a high degree of rigidity. Hull and floats were made of sandwiches with Airex cores and carbon-epoxy skins. The floats consisted of two carbon-epoxy half-hulls, bonded together with a two-component, cold-curing epoxy adhesive.

Cockpit and hood openings have been reinforced with carbon-fiber rings.

The mast is a 26-meter-high wing mast, made of prepreg carbon baked at 125 ˚C. It is composed of six elements assembled by riveting and gluing. On the previous ELF Aquitaine II the mast was already a wing-mast made of a carbon epoxy/Nomex sandwich hot-bonded with a Redux film adhesive.

Inside boats, many bulkheads can be made using sandwich panels with nida aluminum, Airex or foam cores bonded to composite skins....