Techno-vision - It's all money for new rope

Dec 11 2006 By Sarah Judd, The Journal

Colin Pearce and Justin Farrelly made their mark on the world of yacht racing with innovative inventions. Sarah Judd finds out about the future of Colt Systems.

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In an unlikely beginning to their entrepreneurial career, Colin and Justin's journey to the high seas began in 1990 - in the swamps and rainforests of West Africa. "Justin and I met in Gabon through our work in the oil industry, collecting seismic data on rock structures," Colin explains.

"After many a night sitting in our tent in the pouring rain, coming up with zany ideas for our own business, the project finished and we went our separate ways."

The pair kept in touch, but went on to follow different career paths, Colin as a project manager for 3D seismic datasets and Justin as a designer for similar systems.

But Justin "got bored" and a change in career saw him sailing luxury yachts - and getting paid for it. Here, he came up with the idea for Colt Systems' products.

Colin explains: "One of the main ropes holding a ship's mast is called a backstay. At the time Justin was sailing around the world in luxury yachts, these were made of a material called Kevlar.

"But there was talk of a new `superfibre' called PBO, which has the trade name Zylon.

"Justin knew that using this material to make rigging would revolutionise yacht racing and sailing.

"But the problem was, how to hold on to this new material, which is soft and slippery to the touch."

Just over 10 years after they met, Justin was on Teesside setting up internet companies, but was desperate to get Colt off the ground.

Meanwhile Colin was living in Surrey, where he faced a three-hour commute to and from south London every day.

He says: "My wife Clare wanted to be near her family in Newcastle. The time was right for me and Justin to meet up again and work out how to get Colt off the ground." The pair secured £60,000 from the NStar pilot Proof of Concept Fund and received backing from distributors Ocean Yacht Systems, before setting up in 2001.

The pair also received assistance from regional development agency One NorthEast, with two research and development grants totalling £80,000 helping to get them started.

Explaining their innovative rigging and socket designs, Colin says: "Our ropes, which are manufactured in Keighley, West Yorkshire, are made of PBO, the strongest, lightest and least stretchy `super fibre' known. It is twice as strong and half as stretchy as Kevlar, which is used to make body armour, as well as the older backstay ropes for yachts. Yet it is only 20% of the weight of steel. Consequently, our ropes can be used in place of steel rods and wire for better performance."

The duo also invented a socket capable of gripping the rope. "Trying to hold on to something that strong would be like trying to pull a piano with a single piece of wire. But our socket incorporates a novel gripping technique to hold on to the rope without damaging it."

These innovative products have become crucial to weight saving in competitive yacht racing. "Using Colt rigging on a 60ft yacht, we can save approximately 80kg in actual rig weight," Colin says.

"But because this is half way up the mast, five times this weight can be taken out of the bulb - the counter-balancing weight under the yacht.

"The bulb is then raised as the weight is reduced by over half a tonne, allowing you to accelerate faster, to a higher top speed.

"As Colt rigging has a 70% higher breaking limit over steel rod, you are also much safer."

Little wonder then that the company's products have been endorsed by the likes of champion sailors Ellen MacArthur and Russell Coutts.

Colin says: "Having people of this calibre using our products is beneficial to our image.

"Introducing a new material into a safety conscious market has its difficulties, but market perception has now reached tipping point, with more and more serious, performance-oriented sailors converting to PBO rigging."

Colt Systems has undoubtedly enjoyed success, but Colin and Justin are not resting there.

With the development of even more new products, they are determined to continue to take the world of yacht racing by storm.

"We are currently developing a rope guard to reduce the drag on our ropes to almost nothing," Colin says.

Colt will also use this product to diversify into other markets, such as bridge building and maintenance.

Colin explains: "The peak loading of a bridge is a combination of the traffic weight, bridge weight and the wind.

"By using this new Colt rope guard, the impact of the wind as a load is reduced with minimal cost and disruption."

Suggesting that Colt is keen to market its products in other sectors, Colin says: "Of course, they could always replace their old steel wires with our PBO ropes and save a lot more weight to boot!"

Colin hints at the development of other technical innovations, which will help make the North-East company a force to be reckoned with in the sailing and engineering industries.

With Colt already providing contracts to Oxbridge Precision Engineers, on Teesside, for the manufacture of many of its components, this could be great news for the region.

"We're working on something very exciting, but unfortunately, we can't tell you what it is yet."