Composail was a three month placement where I worked to produce a GP42 racing yacht purely from composite materials. 

My responsibility at Composail was to design, develop and manufacture/install the required aspects of 'on-deck safety' and rigging. This saw me design and develop anchor points, stanchions, a rigging layout, fibreglass moulds and of course get my hands dirty working with fibreglass. 

 

This project was very hands-on - This is me sanding back the hull ready for finishing and painting. 

All elements of the deck rigging and safety points were specified and positioned on the deck.

I worked with the race team to ensure all components were in the correct place, taking into account the way they would move around the yacht, ultimately providing a solution that would ensure the team could be as efficient as possible without getting in eachothers way. 

 

Deck rigging points would have to take high loads, and therefore this solution of producing solid fibreglass mounting plates was utilised. 

Stanchions were designed to be streamlined, strong and safe from snagging. A technique known as fuse moulding was selected for the manufacture of the stanchions, as this would allow for a hollow section - keeping weight down and strength high. 

Various layups of fibreglass were tested so as to optimise the design. 

Further prototyping and testing of lifeline anchor points was carried out in order to find the best solution.

The design above shows a trip-free low profile method of securing the line to the deck. 

This production method was later changed to utilise a silicone mould, giving a much neater and replicatable part.