Future Fibres PBO is again the first choice for two high profile superyachts - Leopard 3 and Hamilton II.
Future Fibres is celebrating another record breaking performance. Mike Slade's brand new Leopard 3 has beaten the RORC's Rolex Fastnet monohull course record by eight hours fifty minutes in the toughest Fastnet Race since the infamous 1979 gale. This Bruce Farr designed 100 footer is starting her career as a stripped out swing keel flyer bent on capturing records, but after completing her 13 month racing program will be retrofitted with a Ken Freivokh designed interior. Future Fibres PBO standing rigging was fitted from new on a five spreader Southern Spars rig that carries 1,600sqm of sail.
Hamilton II, Charles Dunstone's impressive 36m Performance Cruising Sloop is the epitome of the performance sailing yacht, created by Phillipe Briand and built by CNB France in 2005. Her Hallspars rig had Ni50 rod rigging as original fit but in a fast moving charter market an upgrade to Future Fibres PBO was chosen after only two years from launch. Even amongst larger cruising yachts superyacht racing is an increasing part of the year’s itinerary and whilst the key driver is fun/social the owners want their boats to perform well in these regattas. For Hamilton II it was realised an upgrade to Future Fibres PBO would bring significant benefits, not least the reduction in rig weight by 606kg.
Both these projects chose the proven reliability and credibility of Future Fibres PBO, with new build projects such as Leopard 3 fully benefiting from the design and weight optimisation available. Retrofits such as Hamilton II are achieving weight savings over conventional Nitronic 50 rod rigging of around 72.0 %. Future Fibres has an unequalled track record having produced continuously wound PBO rigging since 1996 with over 6000 individual cables produced and 150 full sets of standing rigging in service. Future Fibres PBO was fitted to all of the yachts in the last Volvo Ocean Race with a 100% reliability record, and no other composite rigging company comes close to this level of experience.
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