FlexC testing post BWR

Having worked with the majority of the Grand Prix race teams over the years, Future Fibres is in the fortunate position to be able to quickly build real life test data on our new products.

Last year we worked hard in the lab and with a number of test partners for initial sea trials of our unique flexible carbon (FlexC™) cables with impressive early results.

Following these early trials, four boats in the Barcelona World Race had developed enough confidence in the product to carry FlexC™ for their aft rigging during the race itself. Now that the race is over, we have results on FlexC™ cables that have done over 500,000 hard sea miles with another 300,000 miles of results waiting to be processed.

So far, the post BWR results have been extremely encouraging and suggest an impressive level of fatigue resistance on our FlexC™ cables. This short-handed, endurance style racing pushes the product to the absolute limits and these cables have experienced a broad range of testing conditions that no laboratory could ever replicate. The development team at Future Fibres however never sleeps and continues to identify areas for further product improvement which are currently being incorporated into our standard manufacturing processes.

The next big test will be the Volvo Ocean Race which starts in November this year; several of the teams are planning to run with FlexC™ aft rigging.

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