Factory

Building sailboats in fiberglass is a fascinating process. It is a delicate balance of engineering, art and science. Like most things, the end product can be no better than the materials used to construct it. Moreover, in the case of fiberglass, the quality of the end product is inextricably linked to the environment in which it was built. So, in addition to materials, a fiberglass boat can be no better than the factory it was built in.

Fiberglass boats start their lives as rolls of cloth and drums of liquid chemicals. The materials we begin with have little in common with the product that is produced, they are completely transformed. This is fundamentally different than most products. Consider a car, for example. We can recognize each of it's component parts as they enter the factory. It makes little difference where your car is assembled, whether the factory chose to heat at 50 degrees or 80 degrees, 5% humidity or 50%. The environmental fluctuations will not effect the quality of your car. This is not so with fiberglass. In a factory that produces fiberglass, every aspect of the environment must be considered and controlled. Most sailors, even most boat builders, overlook the fact that every fiberglass boat is literally being built at the molecular level.

No detail goes unnoticed at Winner. Our state of the art factory is second to none, fitted with the most up to date climate and dust control systems. We can't show you pictures inside the factory (our competition would love to see that) but, we can give some examples of what we do and why.

Some things are obvious, like dust control. Obviously, you wouldn't want to paint your car next to someone who was grinding and sanding but, that's exactly what many boat builders do. They circulate the same dusty air from grinding room to spray booth to lay up with no sealed rooms and no dust scrubbers. Other things aren't so obvious. Take humidity for example. It may not seem important that a factory be at a specific humidity level but, in fact, it is critical. The effects of humidity fluctuations can most readily been seen in the finish quality of the gel coat. (the shiny, colorful outer layer of a fiberglass boat)  If the humidity level drops, static electricity builds up and the moulds attract dust particles like magnets. (Especially if you're not controlling your dust). The dust is then trapped when the gel coat is sprayed and shows up as imperfections on the bottom and sides of the boat. If humidity rises, water vapour can be trapped and alter the chemistry of the gel coat, changing it's physical properties. So, finding the perfect balance and maintaining that level is an important and integral part of construction. Winner is the only Optimist builder in the world that actively controls it's factory's humidity levels. Just one reason why no one can match the quality and consistency of a Winner.

Temperature control is also crucial but, difficult to achieve and often ignored. The fumes produced by fiberglass resin require that huge volumes of air be chemically scrubbed or constantly exchanged with the outside environment.  So, most boat builders work in an essentially open environment, only heating and cooling to keep temperatures tolerable for employees. But this attempt to save money comes at the cost of quality.

Temperature affects the speed and intensity of the chemical reaction that transforms resin and catalyst into the solid matrix that forms the structure of a boat. This problem is compounded because the resin/catalyst reaction is exothermic (it produces heat) so, increased temperature causes an exponentially greater release of heat. Conversely, low temperatures cause the heat of the reaction to drop drastically. Both cause serious problems for the boat builder. If temperatures rise, the resin will start to thicken and solidify, making an even application impossible. Or, if the temperature drops, the resin may take a very long time to solidify and the resin may collect in pools and leave voids or soft spots. This is just one of many problems caused by temperature fluctuations. At Winner, we avoid all these problems with chemical scrubbers and a state of the art heating and cooling system. The advantages don't stop at quality either. Our dust and chemical scrubbers also protect the environment as well as the health or our employees.