Express 40 by Sail Ventures
Express 40 by Sail Ventures 24th August 2007
The Class 40 rule was created by an association of offshore racers, naval architects and designers. Their aim: to develop a fast, competitive, short-handed offshore yacht that sponsors and individuals would be attracted to without the major price tag. The Class 40 is a box rule that restricts the use of super-expensive materials, construction techniques and items such as canting keels and carbon hulls.The Rule promotes a fast, healthy and safe, offshore shorthanded sailing yacht.
Sail Ventures has created the Express 40 concept which addresses the need for a fast and competitive production Class 40 yacht at a reasonable price and with delivery in a reasonable time frame. The boat itself has been designed by Owen Clarke with Gurit providing the engineering input. The Express 40 is built on the Isle of Wight in the UK by a team of highly qualified composite boat builders and the process overseen by Gurit The hull, deck and all bulkheads are female moulded from epoxy/glass infused laminates. Corecell was specified as core material throughout because of its excellent mechanical properties in such a dynamic environment. Infusion was chosen as the preferred build method due to the quality and repeatability of the laminates produced and the time saving involved once the process is set up.
Gurit has had a big input into the project having been contracted to provide not only the structural engineering but also a full package of support for the infusion. The infusion support has taken Sail Ventures from the basic principles through hull and deck strategy to on-site support of the first 3 boats.
The materials chosen for the build are PRIME™ 20LV infusion resin and Double Cut Corecell. The PRIME™ 20LV system, due to its low viscosity and good mechanical properties has a long record of successful infusion projects and marries well with the Double Cut format of Corecell which helps provide ease of fitting with extremely reliable resin flow characteristics and minimal resin absorption.
Optimisation of the process has seen the production times for the boats fall dramatically and Sail Ventures are now looking at a healthy order book.
