june/july 2016cruisingworld.com74BOATBUILDERPROFILESdirector, Alet du Plessis, brings a background
not in slinging resin but in corporate fi nance.
The boatbuilding operation here is very much
oriented to high production, with fi nely honed
logistics systems for delivery of materials and
components setting a four-boats-per-week
pace. Founded in 1991, R&C has picked up many
CW Boat of the Year awards, most recently for
the Leopard 48, in 2013.St. Francis Marine, St. Francis Bay
stfrancismarine.com
Mention Duncan Lethbridge, and the creation
myths start rolling in. Tim van der Steene of
Tag Yachts contends that it was a 1989 St. Fran-
cis 43 that started the whole multihull trend in
Caribbean chartering and the worldwide cat
boom that followed. As already noted, Duncan
gave Kevin Fouche his start in the business, and
that led to Maverick Yachts. “I think Duncan’s
the grandfather of our industry,” Kevin said. “I’ve
told him he needs to go chill. He doesn’t need to
work so hard now.” But there’s no sign of anyone
chilling at St. Francis Marine. Duncan is one of
three boatbuilders of all those I visited who has
invested in resin-infusion technology and other
forward-thinking methods for keeping weight
out of the boat. His company builds four St.Francis 50s per year, with no plans to expand.
Over the shop fl oor hangs the Cruising World
Boat of the Year banner for Best Cruising Cat-
amaran, which the St. Francis 50 won in 2006.Tag Yachts, St. Francis Bay
tagyachts.com
Tim van der Steene is working at the high-tech,
high-performance end of the cruising-cat spec-
trum at Tag Yachts. Imagine a 60-foot, 16-ton
catamaran cruising along and fl ying a hull (see
photo, p. 72). “People jump up and down andRobertson and Caine is the “800-pound gorilla” of South African
boatbuilders. The company will produce 175 boats this year and still
uses hand-layup of fi berglass and polyester resin (top). At Phoenix
Marine (above), the 50-foot Xquisite X5 was the fi rst South African
cruising boat to be resin-infused with vinylester and polyester resins.build a boat is to lay out dry fi berglass
(E-glass) in a female mold, then roll
or spray catalyzed polyester resin in-
to it and let it cure. “Hand-layup, sol-
id construction” is the shorthand for
this method. Since the late 1940s, it’s
the predominant way that boats have
been built.
“Sandwich construction” adds a core
of foam or wood between fi ber glass
skins to attain the desired strength
with less weight. Hand-laid construc-
tion has two potential downsides. For
one, the fi ber-to- resin ratio may vary
widely from one day to the next: Too
little resin compromises strength,
while too much resin adds needlessweight without adding strength. Sec-
ondly, in a sandwich construction, the
bond between the fi ber skins and the
core depends entirely on what kind of
day the laminator is having.
Vacuum-bagging is a method for
evenly applying pressure on a lami-
nate and then evenly distributing res-
in as it cures. This process starts out
like hand-layup, but laminators cov-
er the fi berglass, core and resin with
an airtight fi lm before the resin and
bonding material cure. Then they
submit the sandwich laminate to
vacuum pressure. Consider that at-
mospheric pressure is 14.7 pounds
per square inch. Over a span of oneRobertson and Caine Leopard 40St. Francis 50SOUTH AFRICA BUILDERS
TIM MURPHY; COURTESY OF THE MANUFACTURER (BOTTOM LEFT); BILLY BLACK (TOP LEFT)