Black magic: Carbon breakthrough to change boat-building forever
A ground-breaking eight-metre game fishing tower built on the Gold Coast from 100 per cent carbon fibre composite is revolutionising boat building globally.
Making a splash at the 2022 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in late October, Queensland company Element Composites unveiled the state-of-the-art sportfishing tower and hooked industry heavyweights with the combination of strength, durability, lightness and speed it offers that has never been seen before.
The carbon fibre tower was constructed for 40-foot Queensland-based game boat Back in Black and is the tallest tower ever fitted to one of the renowned high-performance fishing craft.
Exhibiting the Back in Black tower to US sportfishing boat builders has catapulted Element Composites and Gold Coast-based Ocean Degree Total Yacht Services to the industry forefront in the quest to build lighter, faster and more efficient game boats.
Element Composites Managing Director Levi Duncan, who is also a director of Ocean Degree Total Yacht Services, said it was after tackling some of the most complex superyacht projects in the country that the team turned their focus to using technology in other boat building.
“So the product that we knew would benefit the most with our technology was looking straight at us the whole time,” Duncan said.
“With game fishing such a competitive sport, performance is everything. And we can aid the speed, the lightness, the stability of the boats. And make sure you’ve got the best boat on the water.”
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Duncan said the 100 per cent carbon fibre composite tower was a new leap for boat building.
Duncan travelled to the world’s largest in-water boat show with a City of Gold Coast Australian delegation that also visited around 30 game boat manufacturers.
He said Florida was the epicentre of game boat building, but the carbon fibre tower on Back in Black was generating its own heat.
Carbon composite fibre is five times stronger than steel and one third its weight, making a 100 per cent carbon tower around 70 per cent lighter than a tower built from traditional materials.
“A carbon game tower is six to seven times lighter than any conventional tower. So, we knew we had the lightest tower,” Duncan said.
“And then the boys went one step further. We knew air drag and wind resistance was an issue with conventional towers, so the boys introduced aero foil and elliptical shapes in the framework to reduce these resistances. Then we knew we had the lightest, fastest and coolest looking tower ever built.”
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Ocean Degree director Josh Duke-Yonge said the company had been based for the past 15 years at The Boat Works at the Gold Coast Marine Precinct.
The Gold Coast Marine Precinct is the nation’s premier boating hub that support the largest concentration of marine trades in Australia with extensive boat manufacturing and marina facilities set across 250 hectares on the Coomera River.
The billion-dollar-plus precinct is home to the Gold Coast City Marina and The Boat Works, which have developed into global powerhouses for maintenance, repairs and berthing facilities for superyachts, including a purpose-built superyacht refit yard.
Duke-Yonge said the company’s use of technology, including computer-aided design, composite engineering and aero foil that delivers an aerodynamic advantage, meant the components of the new tower were not only strong and light, but reduced air drag and challenged industry standards for game boat design and construction.
Senior Composite technician, Rob Sabo, said the technology base also meant the tower wasn’t just a one-off.
“With our in-house technology we have, we’ve been able to overcome all the complicated joins where there’s two or three posts intersecting at the one point. We designed and manufactured the mould, worked out the specific release angles, so the part can be produced from a mould and still be functional and strong,” Sabo said.
Its strength, speed and aerodynamics setting new standards, only one test now remains for the new carbon tower and its performance on Back in Black.
With the craft now heading to marlin season in north Queensland, the final test for the tower will be to see if it can help the owners catch a fish.
