Roger Hill 14m Power Catamaran - Barcoo Drift

Design Concept

The name Barcoo Drift describes the quiet, laid back way of fishing on the Barcoo River in the North Queensland interior where the owners live and farm, many kilometers from the nearest salt water. With fishing being very high on the preferred activity, the back of the boat and cockpiit is specifically set up to optimise that activity.

Construction

The custom designed 14m sports fishing catamaran was constructed with a combination of DuFLEX Composite Panels cored with DIAB’s Divinycell H80 and HM100 structural foam cores with some panels laminated with unidirectional laminates so they could be strip-planked to conform to the more compound sections of the outer topsides and wing-deck areas.  ATL Composites engineered the HM100 into the hull bottoms and lower topsides to provide extra toughness to absorb high dynamic impacts and slamming loads while ensuring a light, yet strong structure.

Designed to keep weight to a minimum and to provide a very comfortable stylish vessel for cruising the North Queensland coastline, all other structural sections including bulkheads, hull soles, cabin sides, side decks, etc, were supplied in CNC-routed Component Packs cored with Divinycell H80 in a variety of thicknesses and E-fibreglass reinforcements to meet design and engineering requirements. Divinycell H has been widely used worldwide and has a proven track record in marine sandwich composite construction.

The interior fit-out on Barcoo Drift was also supplied as a CNC-routed Component Pack in FEATHERLIGHT FF1015X6 Marine Grade panels from ATL. Cored with 15mm Divinycell H60, a low density unique combination of polyuren and PVC core, the Featherlight panels will provide good thermal/acoustic insulation and will provide superior stiffness and ultra-light weight to increase overall performance.

Noosa Marine used Techniglue R60 adhesive, in conjunction with the proprietary DuFLEX Z-Press, for the panel joining.  Packed in convenient, self-mixing cartidge packs, the R60 makes mixing and application quick and mess free. A thin bead of epoxy can be applied quickly to the scarf joins on the panels and using the heated Z-Press allows the joint to be cured in approximately 12 minutes.

KINETIX R246TX / H160 epoxy systems are being used throughout the vessel for bonding, taping and additional laminating of the strip planked sections. WEST SYSTEM epoxy and powder modifiers were used fo bonding, filleting and fairing.

DuFLEX and Featherlight Component packs ensure weight consistency and build time is highly efficient.  To compiment the system, ATL’s FRP Bonding Angles provide a quick and effective means for making right angle joints between the panels.  These pre-cured angles reduce wet lay-up in tight corners and over-head applications, and also assist to speed up assembly.