Polycore the Strength Lies Between

Polycore – the Stronger

Polypropylene Honeycomb
Polycore is one of the world’s leading suppliers of thermoplastic
polypropylene honeycomb and lightweight composite solutions.

Polycore Polypropylene Honeycomb is the next-generation

polypropylene honeycomb that is the strongest on the market today.
With its all-round superior properties and competitive pricing, it is fast
becoming a popular composite core material for increasing strength and
stiffness at reduced weight.

“ When it comes
Properties to core materials
• Excellent strength-to-weight ratio of uncompromised
• Large operating temperature range
•
•
Does not absorb water
Excellent corrosion resistance
strength, weight
•
•
Superior shock absorption and impact resistance
Superior fatigue resistance
and performance,
•
•
Excellent sound insulation
Good thermal insulation
Polycore is
•
•
100% recyclable
Easy to apply
the name to
remember. ”
Applications
Currently, Polycore polypropylene honeycomb is being applied
extensively in a diverse range of applications across many industries
which include the Marine, Automotive & Rail, Wind Energy, Architectural,
Industrial, Packaging, Signage and Recreational industries, etc.

Why Polycore
Reasons why Polycore is the polypropylene honeycomb of choice:

• Strongest in the market

• Thinnest in the market (at only 4mm)
• Most technologically advanced (completely flat surfaces, low
resin wastage, strongly fused skins that do not delaminate)
• Available in different grades of strength
• ISO 9001:2000 certified
• Currently undergoing certification by the major classification
societies
• Endorsement by space agency

www.hexacor.com
Technical Specifications

Properties Tests PP - 8 PP - 8H PP - 10

8 mm 8 mm 10 mm
Cell Size
0.3 “ 0.3 “ 0.4 “
80.0 kg/m 3
80.0 kg/m 3
64.0 kg/m3
Density ISO 845
5.0 lb/ft2 5.0 lb/ft2 4.0 lb/ft2

Compressive 2.0 MPa 2.2 MPa 1.0 MPa

ISO 844
Strength 290 psi 319 psi 145 psi

Compressive 95 MPa 97 MPa 50 MPa

ISO 844
Modulus 13,779 psi 14,069 psi 7,252 psi
0.6 MPa 0.8 MPa 0.3 MPa
Shear Strength ISO 1922
87 psi 116 psi 41 psi
13 MPa 19 MPa 9 MPa
Shear Modulus ISO 1922
1,856 psi 2,756 psi 1,305 psi

Tensile 0.7 MPa 0.75 MPa 0.7 MPa

ASTM C297
Strength 102 psi 109 psi 102 psi

Operating Properties

-30°C to 80°C
Effective Temperature Range
-22°F to 176°F
Thermal Conductivity
0.102 W/mK
(at 10°C or 50°F)
Sound Attenuation
22 dB
(50 to 4000 Hz)

Water Absorption < 0.1%

Flammability
Normal Inflammable (B2)
(DIN 4102-1)

Product Dimensions

Thickness: 4mm to 500mm (0.16” to 20”) Polycore the Strength Lies Between
{ Tolerance ± 0.2 mm (0.008”) }

Length and Width: 1150mm x 2300mm (3.75’ x 7.5’) w w w . P o l y c o r e . c o m.au

1220mm x 2135mm (4’ x 7’)
1220mm x 2440mm (4’ x 8’)
{ Tolerance ± 4 mm (0.16”) }

Other customs sheet sizes up to 3000mm x 1500mm (9.8’ x 4.9’) are available upon
request.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The information herein regarding our products, equipment and processes is believed to
be reliable and to the best of our knowledge. We do not warrant the accuracy and completeness of any such
information. Whether expressed or implied, including warranties of fitness for a particular purpose, it is the user’s or
purchaser’s responsibility to undertake sufficient testing to verify the suitability of our products for their own particular
purpose. The information contained herein shall not be construed as inducement, permission or recommendation to
infringe upon any patent rights or other rights of third parties.
a 14m amateur designed and built
Polycore™ powercat
by JO DJUBAL

50 MULTIHULL WORLD POWERCATS MULTIHULL WORLD POWERCATS 51

ASSETS
Designing and building
your own big powercat.
The idea wouldnʼt seem
so daunting in the
hands of a professional
designer and/or builder
but for an
ex-geography/marine
studies teacher, the
notion seems almost
outrageous.
50 MULTIHULL WORLD POWERCATS
1. (main pic left)
2. (above)
UT BRUCE HODGENS HAS
B done it – and extremely
successfully. His beautifully
built cat which is to be ‘home’
for him and his wife, Barbara
is nearing completion in Townsville with
splashdown scheduled for early March.
It’s always inspirational to see building
projects succeed – but even more so
when the owner has jumped in the deep
end as Bruce has and actually done it
from scratch – with no outside help
whatsoever – even wiring and
spraypainting himself.
Liquid Assets is the culmination of a
lifetime of experiences that have all
served as building blocks towards this
ultimate dream ...
An orange orchard in Waikerie, SA
sounds an unlikely spot for a passion for
the water to develop but Bruce began
rowboat fishing and waterskiing as a
youngster on the Murray River. He got
into surfing while at Teacher’s College but
it wasn’t until he met fellow student
Barbara that sailing became an integral
part of the couples’ life. “Barbara had
already begun sailing and introduced me
to it. We bought a Rainbow and then a
420 and although pretty inexperienced
began entering State and National Titles.
We built a Fireball before we got married
and spent our honeymoon at the
National Titles in Port Macquarie!”
After ‘bumming around Europe’ for a
while in 1976, the pair returned to Oz
MULTIHULL WORLD POWERCATS 51
above from left: and built another Fireball which they
3 enjoyed until the end of 1980 when an
4 exchange teaching job in Calgary, Alberta,
5 Canada called. It was here that the
6 couple got into windsurfing – in a big way.
7. (below) “We came back from Calgary and within
six months I’d won my weight division in
Winter State Titles,” Bruce said. “In 1984
we moved to Townsville where the
warmer climate meant we could windsurf
and sail all year round. I set up a
sailboarding business and for years it was
my life – not only building and selling
them but organising and competing in
North Queensland, National and State
titles. We attended the PNG Cup every
year and also attended the New
Caledonia World Cup and the Thailand
Cup. It was a pretty good life for a while
there, trooping around the place
sailboarding!”
‘Trooping around the place’ earned
Bruce some impressive places, including
winning the 1988 Mistral World Masters gear the costs started to blow out. “The “I downloaded trial versions of several
Division in Sydney along with the standing and running gear was going to different boat graphics programs from the
Windsurfer World Masters in 1990. It cost $100,000 and you can buy a lot of internet, and found that Maxsurf was the
was almost inevitable that sailing would diesel for that,” Bruce said. They also most intuitive to use. However when I
again feature in his life and racing found that when cruising you often only found out if cost $12,000 I figured I had
regularly on the trimaran Voodoo with a went short distances when you moved better find something cheaper.” A
bunch of other sailboarders soon saw and you had to run the engines to charge professional boatbuilding friend said he
Bruce hooked on multis. In 1998 he the batteries etc so sails and rigging spent had a copy and kindly allowed Bruce to
began building his own Schionning most of their life rotting in the sun ... use it ... ideas for the next boat started
Waterline 1160. “We launched the boat maybe a powercat was the answer ... taking shape.
at the beginning of 2000 after one year
building full time (took a year off
teaching), and one year part time.” The
next four years saw Bruce and Barbara
enjoying their cat, cruising and racing.
They decided to sell that boat and build a
bigger cat to go extended cruising.
However when they looked at the cost
of a bigger cat with diesels and sailing

“ They decided to
sell that boat and
build a bigger cat to
go extended
8

”
cruising

MULTIHULL WORLD POWERCATS 3

9 “I spent a year learning how to drive
MaxSurf and when I got to the final
design, it was about draft number 20!
The program is fantastic – it totally
models the whole boat and then you can
pull each component out of the boat
from MaxSurf and bring it up on
AutoCad, dimension it all and then make
all the pieces.”
2 MULTIHULL WORLD POWERCATS
Bruce’s design criteria began with a
simple premise. “I wanted to be able to
put a standard house kitchen in the boat,
along with dining table and chairs, settee
etc to avoid the cost and time of building
it all in. I also wanted to achieve a fuel
usage of one litre per nautical mile. The
final design was a 14m Waterline with
long skinny, deep hulls and a beam of
5.5m. It is more a traditional or classic
design with walkways down the side
decks, side opening doors and plenty of
opening windows. There is good
overhang on both the side decks and the
45° sloping windscreen to keep the sun
and the water out.
“So far, there’s not much I’d change.
Designing a boat yourself means you can
design with ease of construction in mind
and also plan for all the systems such as
wiring, plumbing and engine installation
before you start. Having built boats
before I had an idea which aspects were
going to be the most difficult so I
designed the boat with flat panels above
the knuckle.” The piece under the water
comes up to the knuckle (to deflect the doesn’t take into account the labour to 10
water) and was all done in strip cedar make the panels, but you can sure get a
and epoxy. This enabled me to do three lot of panels made for $40,000 worth of
dimensional curves and keep a very labour!
hydrodynamic shape under the water. There are plenty of advantages to
The rest of the boat is constructed from making your own panels other than cost
flat panels of high strength Polycore™ of savings. Originally I was going to use
varying thicknesses – 19ml skins, 25ml balsa panels but when I experimented
bulkheads, 30ml floor and roof with
with this there were all sorts of problems.
appropriate knitted fabrics and vinylester.
For example, the balsa soaked up a lot of
I chose Polycore™ for a number of
resin into the end grain so I found I had
reasons – and did seriously consider ply
to apply a thick coat of fast curing resin
for a while – but the benefits of
and then when that had gone off I could
Polycore™ far outweighed other options
then glass over. The next problem was
for cost, strength and integrity – no rot
that large sheets were impossible to turn
concerns whatsoever! I started with 130
sheets (in 19, 25 and 30mm) and began over because the balsa had no inherent
making all the components such as strength, so then I had to look at making
bulkheads, bridgedeck floor, roof, a flat table and glassing one skin then
multiple sheets together reducing the
furniture, decks, floors and all the upper vacuum bagging the core on, then glassing
wastage. I then glassed them and turned
hull skins. Basically, other than the hulls the other side. What a drama, and also a
huge expense for the vacuum bagging them over, none of which I could do with
below the waterline all the boat is made balsa. This worked so well that I built the
from Polycore™ flat panels, some of gear, moulding table and consumables.
With the Polycore™ I just glassed one bridge deck floor in one piece – that was
which are bent to 2D curves. I spent
side in the morning then turned it over 8.4m x 2.4m (i.e. seven sheets joined
considerable time researching different
and glassed the other side in the together). The topsides for the full length
materials for the boat and now am
afternoon. of the boat which is 15.6m x 2.4m was
convinced that I chose the best product.
I’ve saved approx $40,000 using also done in one piece (13 sheets). It
I found we could use AutoCAD to
Polycore™ versus foam or balsa pre- takes six or seven people to turn these
nest all the components and then join
made panels. As a back over to glass the other side, but it wasn’t
of envelope calculation a a drama. The complete sides of the boat
19mm panel of were finished in one panel with no joins,
faired and undercoated ready to stick on.

“
Polycore™ costs $100,
and then with one layer
of 600 grams/metre2
knitted glass on each
side with vinylester resin
The complete sides of the boat
were finished in one panel with no
joins, faired and undercoated ready
What a joy to have all the fairing and
undercoating with gravity to help you
instead of doing all this on the boat!
Making these large panels reduced the

”
costs about another $40. time spent joining multiple panels with
Pre-made balsa or foam to stick on fibreglass tapes and creates less work for
panels cost in excess of fairing because the joins always make
$400. I know this more work, and we had a lot less waste.
MULTIHULL WORLD POWERCATS 3
 Of course there are other benefits for
Polycore™ panels. I was concerned
“
about balsa panels because we’ve had a
Bruce few problems with boats here in
recommends home Townsville getting water in the balsa core,
leading to rot. All the claims that the
builders do a lot of
water will only go to the next glue line in
forward
”
the balsa i.e. at the most 100mm – aren’t
planning quite what happen in all cases. If water
gets into panels it can also move along
under the glass, delaminating it from the
11 core and spreading the rot to a much
larger area. Polycore is polypropylene
plastic and so rot isn’t a problem. One of
the tests I’ve done with sample panels is
to beat the living daylights out of them
with a hammer. This is my crude impact-
testing régime. The first time I did this
was when a couple of local boat builders
dropped in and were asking about
Polycore™‘s strength. We grabbed a
25mm scrap that had been glassed with
two layers of 600gm fabric on both sides
– it was part of a main bulkhead lay-up.
We placed it on the concrete and then
swung the hammer hard onto it. Not a
scrap of damage. In fact the hammer just
sprang back off the panel. After about
five or six hits on the same spot the glass
started to get damaged but certainly not
as much as any of us expected. This led
to all sorts of further ‘highly scientific’
testing such as driving the car over it
2 MULTIHULL WORLD POWERCATS
repeatedly, putting it between blocks of
wood and jumping on it, and suspending
it between stools and dropping heavy
steel pipes end on from the roof of the
shed. The results were very impressive.
Particularly interesting was the steel pipe
dropped onto the suspended panel. The
glass in the impact side eventually got
damaged but the lower surface glass
remained intact until eventually we
managed to butcher that as well. At all
times we were very impressed with the
core strength. It seems to absorb a lot of
impact rather than just transferring it to
the inner skin and damaging that.
Delamination of the tissue or the core
wasn’t a problem either.
If I ever built another boat (which my
wife assures me I won’t be!) it would
definitely be Polycore™ again. I come
from a family of aeroplane builders so
maybe that will be a future project ...
Bruce also attributes Polycore™ to the
speed of build. “This much bigger boat has
taken 4500 hours as opposed to my
Schionning which took 5000 hours.
Working flat panels on the floor is so much
easier than standing on 44 gallon drums or
wobbly ladders at the side of the boat!”
Bruce believes Craig Schionning is on
the right track towards making building
easier. “I actually designed my boat to be
built the way Craig’s are before his were
launched so it felt good to know we had
come to the same conclusion. It makes
life so much easier to build the lower
hulls and then add all the bulkheads and
floors etc leaving the sides off until there’s
absolutely no more to do inside.”
Bruce recommends home builders do
a lot of forward planning. “You really
need to make provision early on for
things like wiring plumbing and fuel lines
etc which you won’t really be up to for
maybe two years. But such access is vital
in every component or you can run into
trouble later. All of Liquid Asset’s wiring
diagrams and systems in general were
designed in advance and provision made
2 M U LT I H U L L W O R L D
for how and when to fit them.” Bruce
also warns owner builders to do lots of
research where kit boats are concerned.
“Look at your complete costs including
things like shed rental, tools, insurance etc.
I’d almost recommend taking the supplied
estimated cost to build and doubling it. I
feel really sorry for people whose budget
blows out, are in debt to their eyeballs
with an unfinished boat – and often a
divorce on their hands!”
Happily, Bruce and Barbara are far
removed from such strife and are actually
about to embark on one long
honeymoon aboard! “We’re selling the
house and looking forward to living
aboard for quite some time. The boat is
set up for long term self sufficiency and
comfort with air con – loads of solar
panels, large holding tanks and an
integrated flywheel generator on the
Steyr motors so we can belt out
300amps to charge batteries! We plan to
cruise locally for a while and iron out any
bugs before venturing further. Tassie and
NZ would be great and if we have any
money we’d like to eventually go on a
three to four year voyage through New
Guinea, Micronesia, Japan Alaska,
Canadian coast, Mexico and across the
Pacific back home ...”
Quite an itinerary ... But somehow you
just know that with Bruce at the helm, it
will come to fruition!
M U LT I H U L L W O R L D 3