25 June 1999

Revolutionary mast sets sail for UK's biggest engineering prize

The creators of a revolutionary carbon fibre sailing rig now have a 1 in 4 chance of winning the UK's biggest engineering prize, the £50,000 Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award for innovation. The Academy will announce a team from Carbospars Ltd, based at Hamble Point in Southampton, as one of the four finalists for the award on 24 June 1999. For engineers Damon Roberts, Ian Howlett, Neil MacDonald and John Brickwood, it caps ten years of effort developing and marketing AeroRig®, the world's first balanced, free-standing carbon fibre yacht rig.

When Brazilian adventurer Amyr Klink attempts a 50,000 mile polar circumnavigation next year, he will catch the wind with two AeroRigs. His new boat Paratii 2, a 28 metre aluminium schooner, is currently being built in Brazil, and Carbospars will supply the rigs at the end of 1999. Klink is an AeroRig convert, after using one on his old 15 metre steel-hulled cruiser, Paratii, on the first ever single-handed circumnavigation around Antarctica. The trip took him just 88 days instead of the expected 100, because the AeroRig made the boat more stable and easier to handle, even in mountainous seas. After 9,700 miles, enduring winds up to 120 kilometres an hour, and waves up to 20 metres high, Klink wrote "I am really pleased with the AeroRig - it keeps the boat well balanced."

AeroRig is the brainchild of Ian Howlett, designer of the last three British Americas Cup Challengers. He proposed the original version for a client who had commissioned him to design a 22 metre luxury cruising yacht that could be sailed around the world with a minimal crew. This was only possible with the composite free-standing and balanced rig that was to become the AeroRig," says Howlett. "The mast and yard/boom are rigidly fixed together so the whole unit swivels. Aircraft abandoned rigging wires back in the 1930s, so it's not surprising as we approach the end of the millennium that yacht rigs have at last begun to adopt the same cantilevered configuration."

AeroRig enables big yachts to turn much faster than with a conventional set of sails, simply by turning the wheel. "If someone falls overboard at full speed the main problem is getting back to pick them up in time," says Neal MacDonald, round-the-world yachtsman and a participant of the ill-fated 1998 Sydney-Hobart race, where several lives were lost. "An AeroRig makes turning much easier and could save valuable time in recovering people." Despite the improved safety, he claims seasoned sailors don't get bored with the new rig, because they can actually drive the boat harder. "Insurers like AeroRig," says Carbospars Managing Director Damon Roberts, "because there's much less to go wrong than for a conventional boat and it's far less prone to human error. Loaded ropes can break limbs or send people overboard - the AeroRig needs no ropes."

The smallest boat to carry an AeroRig is a 4.5 metre trimaran developed by the Royal Yachting Society for disabled sailors - a self-tacking rig is ideal for them. There is no limit to how big the rigs can be - Carbospars are now getting enquiries for 55 metre boats. The key to building the masts lies in computer modelling and quality control of the carbon fibre construction - the prototypes were tested in the wind tunnel at Southampton University's Wolfson Unit. Carbospars has also developed an optical strain gauge to monitor its masts as part of a DTI Link programme with British Aerospace, Pendennis Shipyard and Aston University.

Damon Roberts founded Carbospars in 1990 to develop and manufacture AeroRigs, after meeting Ian Howlett at Southampton University. The market is expanding and the company made a profit for the first time in 1998. Their carbon composite technology is finding applications in building aerials and strengthening old buildings. They also built the tallest carbon fibre mast in the world, at 58 metres, for the restored J-class yacht Velsheda, built in 1933.

ends

Notes for editors

1. The Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award is Britain's premier prize for engineering. It is given annually for outstanding innovation of benefit to the community. First presented in 1969, the award consists of a gold medal and £50,000 prize.
   The outright winner of the 1999 Award will be announced in November 1999.
   
2. The three other finalists are British Aerospace Systems &
3. Equipment for the silicon VSG gyroscope, Buro Happold for the Millennium Dome and NDS Ltd for digital terrestrial television.
   
4. The Royal Academy of Engineering aims to pursue, encourage and maintain excellence across the whole field of engineering in order to promote the advancement of the science, art and practice of engineering for the benefit of the public. The Academy comprises the UK's most eminent engineers and is able to use their combined wealth of knowledge and experience to meet its objectives.

For more information please contact:

Jane Sutton at the Royal Academy of Engineering
tel: 020 7227 0536 (direct), email: jane...@...org.uk

Damon Roberts, Managing Director of Carbospars Ltd
tel. 01703 456736, fax 01703 455361, email: carbospars@compuserve.com

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