ACG’s out-of-autoclave MTM®57 carbon fibre prepregs and Holland Composites structural assembly techniques have been combined to produce a boat that has an ultra-lightweight, honeycomb cored hull which is stiffer, stronger and more durable than previous builds. The curved carbon prepreg daggerboards and beams on these competition catamarans offer improved stiffness and reduced drag, both leading to a significant improvement in overall performance.
The ACG MTM57 Series prepreg resins are toughened, 80-20°C curing, epoxy matrices offering flexible processing and a wide range of handling characteristics. They can be supplied on a variety of reinforcements and are available in ACG’s standard prepreg and ZPREG® partially impregnated formats.
“ACG was extremely flexible in its approach to providing customised prepregs to suit our particular requirements," reports Pieter-Jan Dwarhuis, founder of Holland Composites.
"We worked in partnership to tailor MTM57 carbon unidirectional and fabric prepregs in application specific resin weights to provide the optimum level of performance for the parts on our A-Class Advanced Racing Catamarans.”
Advanced Racing Catamarans was founded by Dwarshuis and fellow A-class sailor Arno Terra.
The DNA is the new Dutch A-class by Advanced Racing Catamarans. These 5.49 m (18 ft) catamarans are popular with both amateur and professional sailors. Various America’s Cup teams use DNA catamarans for training purposes. Recent successes include a first and a third position in the Worlds 2011, a first position in the New Zealand Nationals 2011 and a first position in the Australian Nationals 2011.
