Why Specialized Jobs like the Americas Cup Boat Build Come to Holland MI

When the Stars and Stripes (S&S) America’s Cup Racing Team’s project manager came to tour Composite Builder’s facility, he was inspired to see the extra support available in Holland township. An Americas Cup boat build is not just any boat build, it requires a lot of talent and resources. Composite Builders is equipped and has the experience and space, but like any large-scale specialized project, reliable products and services are required. This is what makes Holland, Michigan so appealing. 

Holland is known as a beautiful West Michigan town located on Lake Michigan, nonetheless, it has a robust industrial influence. Composite Builders associates with several of these leading-edge companies, creating a network of businesses that act as an extension to our team. Localizing our partners brings reliability and efficiency, as well as eliminating shipping costs and delays. When our customers and project managers are on-site the convenience of this collaboration reduces them traveling great distances. 

For unique projects, like the Americas Cup yacht, the broad size of the racing vessel needs a high precision large-scale CNC to mill the plug. This is a specialized machine with only a few in the country. Five minutes away from Composite Builders’ location is Christiansen Fiberglass Tooling, outfitted for oversized milling with a 60 ft. length by 20 ft. wide, and 10 ft. high CNC mill. They finished the racing yacht’s expansive plug with aerospace tolerance and precision standards. Once the plug was ready to transport to Composite Builder’s facility it required only one truck making two short trips. This transport eliminated expensive LTL and the risk of shipping delays and travel wear.

The structure of the deck and hull are made from advance carbon fiber composites sandwiched with a customized honeycomb core. Our supplier Plascore, an aerospace certified and global manufacturer, located in our township, works directly with us fabricating our high-performance honeycomb core. This business relationship is ideal as honeycomb core has an important role for innovative lightweight, high strength composite structures. Composite Builders uses several types of honeycomb core materials for advanced composites fabrications. Plascore is our preferred supplier for high-quality honeycomb core; we have sent their materials for analysis and the results outperformed their competitors.

Holland, MI has a long history of boat building, and incidentally, there are several manufacturers here producing production-built boats. To have an Americas Cup boat built in Holland could not be more fitting. Holland is a community of accomplished, innovative, and diverse industries. When Composite Builders sources our suppliers we don’t have to look too far for some of the best.