Friday, January 15, 2016

Hall Consistency the Key in Sydney-Hobart


The 2015 Sydney-Hobart race was a good test for Hall products, both new and "seasoned."
Comanche  © Rolex/Daniel Forster
Line Honours went to owners Jim Clark & Kristy Hinze-Clark and skipper Ken Read, as 100-foot supermaxi Comanche crossed the mark in 2 days, 8 hours, 58 minutes and 30 seconds, despite having suffered significant damage from a submerged object en-route to the finish.

Hall supplied two key assemblies for Comanche, both having to be 100% reliable in this especially tough race. First was Comanche's monolithic keel ram box. Due to its enormous size and stringent strength requirements, Hall was commissioned to build the keel ram box and cure it in their aerospace-grade autoclave. For the same reasons, Hall was tapped to build the yacht's ultra-strong bowsprit, on which its highly-loaded reaching headsails depend.
Balance  © Rolex/Stefano Gattini
Overall victory at Sydney-Hobart went to TP52 Balance, equipped with a 2004 Hall carbon rig. With this Hobart proving to be one of the roughest on record, the conditions proved a severe test for the "old" rig. Despite its many years of service, the rig came through with flying colors at the top of the podium - a clear testament to Hall's consistency and quality.

Hall Spars & Rigging has over 35 years of experience building and maintaining the world's most innovative and high-performance rigs. With three complete manufacturing centers on three continents, Hall pioneered the combination of autoclave curing and Seamless carbon construction.