CompoTech's big impact in small high performance boats
19 / 07 / 2005
‘The boats are really powerful and sometimes we push them too hard. So far, CompoTech’s tubes have performed with honours’
Kristian Hajnsek – skipper of Mini 6.5 Adria Mobil 509
When two of Slovenia’s top Mini 6.5 skippers were looking for a high-performance composite solution for their new Adria Mobil boats, 509 & 510, a recommendation put them in touch with CompoTech.
Today, Andraz Mihelin and Kristian Hajnsek, who are causing a big stir in the 6.5 Mini series – 510 being placed 3rd in last month’s 2005 Fastnet and 509 coming 3rd in the 2005 Odyssée d'Ulysse - are congratulating themselves on finding the ideal partner to support their growing success.
Designed by the well-known French yacht designer, Samual Manaurd, both boats use CompoTech’s bespoke carbon fibre tubes for the mast, bowsprit and steering rods.
‘The main challenge involved in designing Minis is to make a very light weight boat which is also robust enough for offshore racing,’ says Matjaz Svetek , Director of Jost Svetek & Co, CompoTech’s distributor in Slovenia. ‘The huge force exerted by the large sails is a particular challenge. For the mast, CompoTech modified the CT190 tube by applying their special laying process to cope with the immense force exerted in the fore-aft direction. In a similar way the bowsprit was also tailored to handle the huge asymmetric spinnakers and reachers’.
CompoTech’s carbon fibre tubes, produced using their Zero degree axial fibre laying process, provided a solution that was not only lightweight, but also strong enough to withstand the gruelling conditions to which the boats are subjected. The proprietary manufacturing process and machines used by CompoTech offer excellent fibre and resin consolidation and enable the fibres to be laid accurately at the desired orientation resulting in a very high performance laminate. The final component offers more than five times the strength and more than twice the stiffness of an aluminium equivalent.
All tubes are engineered to meet the exact requirements of the design specification - skippers, Kristian and Andraz, who built the boat themselves, were equally impressed by CompoTech’s expertise and commitment to producing the right solution for them, and not simply offering an ‘off-the-shelf’ product.
‘We chose CompoTech because of the effort they put into meet our exact requirements. Their commitment assured us that they could really meet the performance and quality we demanded.'
Kristian Hajnsek, skipper of Mini 6.5 Adria Mobil 509.
CompoTech designs, develops and manufactures structural composite tubes for a range of industrial and marine applications. Established ten years ago, the company has a design office and manufacturing plant in the Czech Republic and a sales office in the UK, but supports customers around the world. CompoTech has developed an unrivalled Zero degree axial fibre laying process for manufacturing components of the highest standard on their custom-built machines. The company supplies a range of solutions to the marine sector including tubes for headfoils, masts, spars, outriggers, rudders, hydraulic cylinders and other structural components.