This year's METSTRADE Show hosted the second edition of a round table dedicated to the use of materials for nautical construction.
The first day on stage focused on the latest news in boat construction. The panellists were among the best in their respective sector: Peter Carbutt of ITW, Luca Olivari of OlivariEng, Alberto Conte of Trucker, Vincent Cholvy of Chomarat, Massimo Bercella of Bercella, Jeroen Wats of G-Force Yachts and Valerio Corniani of DIAB. Each brought a unique and fascinating contribution to the table.
Luca Olivari a presentation entitled 'Structural design of high-speed RIBs: the slamming environment' which focused on a problem that is becoming increasingly important as boats get faster. The so-called slamming phenomenon is common to powerboats, as well as to light and fast-sailing mono and multihulls. The questions he attempted to answer were: What are the pressures affecting hulls running at 160 mph? And how should the slamming phenomenon be defined?
Jeroen Wats talked about how a sailor, yacht designer and yacht builder bewitched by speed designed and built the G-Force Yachts series designed and built to fly on water. The idea was to design a high-performance boat with a priority given to force and emotion.
Vincent Cholvy of Chomarat, a company with 45 years of expertise in the marine market, presented newly developed products dedicated to the industry - a multiaxial carbon fibre reinforcement that allows structural design benefits, top surface quality and overall parts cost savings, as well as a range of high-performance carbon tapes for local reinforcement. It is impossible to describe all the presentations in this space but they can be requested from the authors.