[YachtForums]

Horizon Yacht, Taiwan's largest yacht builder, has announced it is constructing what it claims is a "record-breaking" one-piece SCRIMP yacht hull at its Atech Composites subsidiary in Kaohsiung, south Taiwan.

Work is well underway on a 130ft long (40m) SCRIMP hull for the Horizon Premiere S130 model, which Horizon says is the longest one-piece SCRIMP yacht hull ever attempted in the world.

The SCRIMP system of laminating fibreglass hulls was first introduced to Taiwan in early 1999 through the United Ship Design & Development Centre (USDDC).

Horizon Yachts subsidiary Atech Composites is the first SCRIMP licensee holder in Taiwan, and has been applying infusion technology to all sizes of hulls, decks and superstructures for the past five years.

Today, infused resin flow is easily controlled in three dimensions to wet through hulls as long as 130ft (40m). Single-skin or sandwich shell plates and the main longitudinal and transverse structures are infused in one shot.

The world-debuting hull, overseen by Keith Chen, Horizon Yacht's chief engineer and head of R&D, incorporates a sandwiched bottom and side shell with a core thickness of 60mm. All main girders of the hull have been infused together in one piece and a total of 8 tonnes of resin has been infused into the hull (comprising 7.4 tonnes of fibreglass with a 4.7 tonne core).

The hull will serve as the platform for one of Horizon Group's larger yacht classes from the company's new Premier Yacht boat yard. Florida, US-based yacht designer JC Espinosa is designing the Horizon 130, which will have an overall length of 39.2m, a beam of 7.98m and a displacement of 211 tonnes.

Currently the new model is the largest category of yacht to be built at Horizon, but the completion of its new Kaohsiung waterfront facility by the middle of 2006 will enable the yard to manufacture yachts in excess of 130ft-150ft (40m-46m).

Prior to this project Horizon held the previous world record for manufacturing the largest one-piece SCRIMP hull with Callixas, a Horizon 105 Explorer style yacht.

Horizon was founded in 1987 by naval architect John Lu, employing 30 people. Now with a workforce of more than 600, the company has built more than 400 motor yachts for customers worldwide.