The Hatteras Advantage: Superior Hull Construction

"A lot of builders put vinylester in their skin coat, but almost no one besides Hatteras uses a vinylester gel coat below the waterline,” said Bob Arthur, Hatteras Yachts manager of structural and composites engineering.

Instead of vacuum-bagging the whole hull, which some builders do in order to remove excess resin from the lay-up quickly, Hatteras uses proprietary vinylester resin infusion technology to make its hulls lighter, stiffer and stronger. The process involves using the vacuum to carefully to pull the vinylester resin through the fiberglass part. “We would rather do infusion and get the cleaner, clearer hull surface it produces than to use vacuum-bagging,” said Arthur. “The infusion allows us to really dial in our resin-to-glass ratio for stiffness and strength.”

Arthur is a 43-year veteran of the Hatteras Yachts team.  “What a lot of people don’t know is that back in the ’80s, Hatteras actually helped to develop the very first vinylester gel coat for use in composite construction,” he said. Since 1959, when Hatteras Yachts Founder Willis Slane launched the first boat under 30 feet built of fiberglass rather than wood with the goal of conquering the stormy seas off the North Carolina coast, we’ve been at the leading edge of advanced hull construction.

“I love the product we build, and that it’s known throughout the industry for its beauty and toughness,” said Arthur.