BOATANDBOATS.COM: CARBONAUTICA GANGWAY AND GFC STEERING WHEEL ON BOARD THE LAB-BOAT

As our readers already know, the staff of Boatandboats.com uses its Daydreamer, a Comet 460 converted into a lab-boat, to test products to later install on board. Among novelties, this year we’ve decided to test a gangway and a steering wheel.

Two completely different components made by the same manufacturer, Carbonautica, and of the same material, glass fibre. Indeed, both the gangway and the steering wheel are like Isabeau d’Anjou and Etienne Navarre in Ladyhawke: as one becomes the main character, the other disappears and vice versa.

Essential for few, but inevitable, moments within the port, gangway is generally annoying because of its encumbrance in all the other circumstances. On the other hand, the steering wheel is the materialization of the “scepter of power” firmly hold in hand during rides in both tense wind, slightly rough sea and light summer breezes. So, we’ll see the performances of these two elements we’re still installing on board.  In the next few days, we’ll show you how our works are carried out and what you have to focus on when you do works like these.

As its name suggests, Carbonautica is a Slovenian company specialized in designing and producing carbon fibre marine accessories.

“However, glass fibre, too”, the staff of the company explained us, ” allows us to obtain performances which are very similar to carbon fibre’s ones but with the lowest costs”. Thus, we’ve decided to see that with our eyes. In particular, we chose a 2.30 x 38 cm (L x W) folding gangway.

The stunning functional design is evident at the very first glance and you can immediately perceive both the lightness and solidity of its beautiful slightly saddle-backed profile. Despite the thinness of the two halves of the real walkway, the gangway is absolutely solid and stable. With a weight of just 8.8 kg – in water, it floats -it can support up to 250 kg working load. Two joints allow the two sections to move while a center block holds them in place. The fixing joint is double and adjustable, which makes the gangway totally in-built in the hull just through its installation.

Carbonautica designers and engineers heavily focus on details, as shown by the presence of a rubber bumper strip which wraps the entire perimeter of the two main parts while preventing fiberglass from damaging.

Cylinder finishing makes the walkway non-slip and safer. The product is equipped with two wheels installed on a turning axis, very similar to a shopping cart’s ones. This way, the manufacturer has solved the typical problem coming from fixed gangways equipped with “squared wheels”, that are those which can just move back and forth.

Furthermore, we’ve equipped our standard accessory with two aluminium stanchions with adjustable textile handrail. Equally textile are the two tie-rods which adjust the gangway height. Instead of the heavy traditional stainless-steel triangle, we’ve also installed an elegant aluminum tube matching the two stanchions. We’re looking forward to test it and tell you its performances.

However, we are even a little more eager to test the Carbonautica steering wheel. With a diameter of 1.40 cm, three Y-shaped rays and an anodized satin-finish aluminium central buckle, it weights just 6 Kg. Since it is totally customizable in terms of colours and finishes, we’ve chosen a version which perfectly matches our boat. So, white rays and wood effect wheel.

Now, we just have to test our Daydreamer at sea.