The 18-month refit on the 75.2m sailing yacht M5 continues at Pendennis as Carbo-link unwraps the largest composite forestay ever built.
Weeks of work completed the new forestay, which is built with the same cutting-edge fibre-optic technology used on America’s Cup boats. This will be the first time a superyacht has been fitted with a solid carbon cable with unidirectional fibre and a fibre Bragg grating (FBG). These are optical fibres that reflect the loads through particular wavelengths. Data of all the tension and loads on the rig at any given moment can then be visually monitored centrally via computer systems.
Sensors are also wrapped around the forestays. Once the forestay is finished and the carbon foils and furler motors are fitted, access between the two will be extremely limited, making it almost impossible to detect chafing between the stay and the furler. That’s where the surface damage sensors come into play: if there is chafing, they will simply stop reflecting, triggering an alarm.