Technology


Always totally custom made


SmartRigging delivers sophisticated rigging to an extraordinary spread of customers from AC winners to International 14s, Imoca 60s and giant land-based and offshore cranes. Safe to say they’ve got the hang of it...


Many people might think of composite rigging as new cutting- edge technology, but SmartRigging has been building PBO rigging since 2005 and solid carbon rigging since 2010. By now they have serious experience, more than a decade of client feedback and an impressive list of high-profile happy clients. The company was founded by a passionate multihull racer with the idea to try and prevent metal fatigue in traditional steel rigging. They experimented with PBO cables to be used as standing rigging, and then built a factory to produce them on an industrial scale in Joure in the Netherlands, where the company remains based to this day. Within two years of its launch the


company had become a world leader in the new field of composite rigging, with the initial product adapted to cover all standing rigging needs. A large range of weight conscious high performance raceboats used the initial system, from International 14s to high performance monohull and multihull classes like Imoca 60s,


72 SEAHORSE


Orma 60s, M2s and Extreme 40s. SmartRigging was quick to


see the potential for industrial applications of aramid and PBO cables and in 2009 they launched SmartRigging’s sister company FibreMax. The company produces cables for industrial applications, such as crane pendants, and more recently to anchor floating offshore wind farms. Success in these booming sectors has turned the company into an industrial heavyweight. The company has built the world’s strongest aramid cable (MBL 17.000kN), and the 100 per cent solar powered production site now builds cables up to 235m in length for the SmartRigging and FibreMax brands. The current production facility in Joure is 12,000sq m. A new production site is under construction 40km away to cope with exploding demand and this will increase the maximum cable length up to 300m. Industrial cables might be where the money is these days, but this is a company run by passionate and active high-


Above: SmartRigging supplies the standing rigging for the revolutionary QuantFX lake foiler which pushes the boundaries of weight reduction throughout design and manufacture of the entire boat and rig


performance sailors and so focus on the sailing side of the business is clearly as strong as ever. While starting out with PBO


rigging, it soon became apparent that carbon would lead to even more performance gains. The solid carbon fibre rigging


product has been further developed and can be built in aerofoil sections where this is beneficial, such as the diamond stays on rotating rigs that are always turned to face the apparent wind (or boats travelling under high apparent wind speeds). The company now sells a


complete range of aramid, PBO and carbon rigging to suit boats and rigs of all shapes and sizes. Aramid cables are larger in


diameter and heavier than PBO or carbon fibre, but are less susceptible to be damaged by bending or shock loading. Aramid cables are used by performance catamaran builders as the leeward side-stays of catamaran masts are often particularly slack and therefore susceptible to the type of bending and shock loading which


LORIS VON SIEBENTHAL


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