Carbon fibre
Carbon fibre can refer to carbon filament thread, or to felt or woven cloth made from those carbon filaments. By extension, it is also used informally to mean any composite material made with carbon filament.

Carbon is a remarkable element for many reasons. Its different forms include one of the softest (graphite) and one of the hardest (diamond) substances known.

Carbon fiber has become widely used, where strength and weight minimization are key factors. Their strength is more than ten times that of stainless steel or aluminium, their stiffness is at least the same as stainless steel and their weight is about two thirds that of aluminium

Advantages
Carbon fibres exhibit generally superior performance in tensile, compressive and flexural properties as well as fatigue resistance. Also excellent interlaminar and in plane shear strengths. Best tensile strength, flexural modulus, heat distortion temperature and linear expansion compared with other materials.

The weight advantages of a carbon gangway weighing in the region of five kilos will be apparent to any who has tried to carry the stainless steel equivalent! This is especially true if the task falls to a woman or to the more elderly.

With monocoque carbon wheel, the massive reduction in weight results in much lower rotational inertia and a much more responsive helm. Consequently, the power drain on the auto-pilot system becomes considerably lower. This is even more noticeable on a twin wheel yacht.

Monocoque
"Monocoque" (French for "single shell") is a construction technique that uses the external skin of an object to support some or most of the load on the structure. This stands in contrast with using an internal framework (or truss) that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin. Monocoque construction was first widely used in aircraft, starting in the 1930s, and is the predominant automobile construction technology today. Carbonautica have had many years of experience with Monocoque designs for performance racing bikes.