Boat Building & Composites
This section covers the technical side of composite boatbuilding — materials, processes, tools, and the engineering decisions behind real projects. The content here is drawn directly from Shayne’s professional work: two Volvo Ocean Race campaigns, an America’s Cup Challenger campaign, Southern Spars, C-Tech, High Modulus, and twenty-five years of composite engineering on some of the fastest boats in the world.
Everything documented here has been done on real boats, under real constraints, with real materials. This is not theory.
Paikea’s Build Series
The most detailed composites documentation on this site is the Paikea refit series — a Catana 42 rebuilt using salvaged America’s Cup carbon and grand prix materials. The build series covers hull damage repair, vacuum bagging complex geometry, fabric selection, resin systems, secondary bonding, and structural laminate design across real projects with full engineering reasoning.
Composite Engineering Tools
A reference guide to the tools behind professional composite work — what Shayne uses, why, and how. Covers hand tools, power tools, vacuum bagging equipment, resin mixing, and the consumables stack.
Working with Composites
Guides covering the fundamentals of composite work — fabric types and why they matter, woven versus stitched cloth, fibre orientation and load paths, resin systems, vacuum bagging technique, and surface preparation for secondary bonding. Referenced throughout the Paikea build series and written to be useful whether you’re approaching your first composite repair or looking to understand the engineering behind what you’re doing.
Browse the Working with Composites Page→
Want to Go Deeper?
The free content here covers the principles and the process. The members’ technical library goes deeper — behind the scenes footage of the Paikea build, detailed engineering discussion in the technical forum, and one new members-only video every month.