About Us
CARBONTEST.AU is an amateur sailing sporting team tasked with promoting non-destructive testing (NDT) of carbon yachting components. The three main objectives of CARBONTEST.AU are:
Make sailing safer
Ensure yacht owners are able to insure carbon rigs by having them tested
Reducing the risk to insurance underwriters, therefore reducing insurance premiums and/or exclusions
CARBONTEST.AU is supported by Asset Reliability Inspections (ARI) for testing needs. The testing of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) uses the latest in ultrasonic testing with a mix of both conventional and phased array ultrasonics, depending on the geometry and size of the component. Of course, we can also test glass reinforced plastics (fibreglass), keel bolts and also conduct other NDT applications.
Please don’t hesitate to have a chat with the sailing crew if you see them on the regatta circuit as that is why they are there!
The use of CFRP is becoming more prevalent in the construction of many items including planes (Boeing 787 Dreamliners), Formula 1 cars, bicycles and yachting components - typically being masts/spars.
There are no published standards on how to undertake the task of testing, but both the public and industry expects this service to be done for both safety and reliability reasons. Formula 1 and the airline industry obviously have verified and trusted procedures to achieve their safety and reliability needs. ARI’s testing experts have achieved the same for the yachting industry using tried and proven test techniques and leaning on our expertise learned in other critical sectors such as defence, aerospace and power generation, but applied to CFRP in the marine environment.
ARI has both the expertise in NDT and a keen interest in yachting to ensure you will get the right mix of service. We can work with insurance loss assessors to quantify damage from collisions.
Contact
CARBONTEST.AU or ARI to discuss your NDT needs to ensure you are not at risk of gear failure during a race coupled with a denied insurance claim.
Site: www.ari.com.au
Mail: neil.young@ari.com.au
The Yacht
The brief for the yacht was, affordable, fast, fun, lifting keel, a head for the ladies, road legal trailer and of course carbon mast and spars. We settled on the L30 with more details on the yacht being found here - l30class.com
We weren’t the only ones choosing the yacht with World Sailing choosing the L30 for World Sailing Offshore World Championship and also now as an established international class.
The L30 has been tested since November 2015, and Sydney Marine Brokerage are the exclusive Australian distributors - sydneymarinebrokerage.com