Carbon fibre in sailing ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ talk: Into ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ slide 1: Most of the major modern developments in sailing are linked to carbon fibre; it is used in almost all areas of sailing boats because of its unique properties. In this presentation I am going to discuss how carbon fibre is used in sailing boats and why it is the preferred material to use. Manufacturing carbon fibre ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ slide 2: Carbon fibre is made by the controlled oxidation, carbonisation and graphitisation of carbon-rich organic precursors already in fibre form, mainly polyacrylonitrile PAN, rayon and pitch. The temperature...
lines. Carbon fibre sails are also hard to stretch, this means that control lines have more of an effect on the sail don't have to be pulled on quite so hard. Carbon is a good choice because it is light, a jib with a 30m+ roach only weighs about 75kg, this is much lighter than you could achieve with previous materials. Carbon fibre is also resistant to UV light, this is important as sails are constantly subjected to sunlight. Carbon fibre in sails is still quite rare on boats and is almost exclusively on bigger boats.