What's psychology got to do with boatbuilding companies you might ask? Well, the more advanced and innovative the technology, the easier it seems to get people to talk. And they will talk at length and with unbridled enthusiasm about pioneering techniques and whole new ways of building craft.

However, the more conservative and established a company, however big it is, the more reticent the replies seem to be. I suppose it's the difference between those in the comfort zone of today as opposed to those with pioneering ideas for tomorrow.

One of those who certainly brings the subject alive when it comes to talking about building boats is Giovanni Belgrano, marine business manager at SP Systems.

SP Systems specialise in composite high-tech construction but their epoxies and ancillary products are also widely used in many general boat yards around the country.

Off the shelf products, such as basic resins, from all manufacturers have become easier to use. But when it comes to the Grand Prix racing boats or high performance one-off blue water cruisers Belgrano says composites now rule the waves.

"Twenty years ago you could have chosen wood, aluminium or a variety of types of GRP. Now the discussion doesn't even take place due to the strength to weight advantages that composites offer, " said Belgrano.

Investing in technology One of the latest techniques pioneered by SP Systems is Sprint technology, which involves a cloth/epoxy/cloth sandwich and is a combination of the company's prepreg and infusion technologies.

The Sprint cloth is vacuumed into a mould and the resin is cured at 80infinityC in an oven; as the mould is heated then resin is infused through the cloth.

Boatbuilding this way means you can lay the skin of a hull in a day; in the past a high-tech hull could take weeks to produce. "The performance of these prepregs makes their use more feasible in an industrialised environment, " added Belgrano.

So far only a limited number of yards are embracing this new technology in the UK and Europe which is understandable. Prepregs are easier to handle than other resin infusion technologies but you still need skilled labour to use it. You wouldn't want failures with this sort of investment.

Yards need to be set up with an oven and their tooling has to be able to take the high temperature cures. They will also need to be familiar with vacuum technology.

Belgrano admits it will take time before Sprint technology will be used for general purpose boatbuilding, but says the sailing market is leading the way: "They are more in need of composites than the powerboat market, " he said.

"The powerboat market can always put in bigger engines as a way of getting better performance, or they can forget about performance and just make the interior look good.

The powerboat people tend to lag behind the sailing boat people and are slower to take advantage of composites."

Sailing boats already use carbon composites for masts and thermoplastic rigging won't be far away which could offer weight savings of over 50%.

Very light, very tough However some powered craft that have embraced composite technology from the beginning are those belonging to the RNLI.

"Although their designs may look dated or heavy, for many years the construction of an RNLI boat has been identical to the materials you would use in a Grand Prix racing boat, " said Belgrano. "They are many times stronger than leisure production type boats."

The RNLI boats are made by Green Marine of Lymington which only specialise in commissioned craft including America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race boats.

"We 're always at the forefront of new materials and new ways of making a boat lighter and faster, " said Green Marine's Lynda Lawford.

"When we first started building boats for the RNLI the choice was composites or metal, but the crews swayed it in the composites direction because they were so pleased at how the boats reacted and how safe they felt."

One hit horrendous rocks, she said. It never holed the boat although there was a lot of damage inside.

"We also built Assa Abloy forthe Volvo Ocean Race. She came back having gone around the world with no structural damage whatsoever. But in England not many people use prepregs, they are too frightened of them."

Legislation on emissions Oyster however aren't frightened. The company has recently built a 100ft oven to be able to use this technology but Nick Creed, commercial manager at Oyster, admits this was a "substantial investment".

"We have also sourced labour who know how to use composites from within and outside the UK, but I wouldn't say that it's an inexpensive way of producing boats, " he said.

Oyster builds semicustom/semi-production craft and have customers willing to pay for high end technology.

But there's something else looming on the horizon that has made them embrace new technology and that's legislation regarding styrene emissions.

"We foresee the legislation as getting more stringent - they are in other countries already. It's only going one way, " commented Creed.

Gio Belgrano saw the way it was going on a recent trip to the US. "I happened to show up at a Florida factory for an appointment first thing in the morning and there was a guy in a suit outside. We thought he was a customer or representative, but he was an Environmental Protection Agency inspector and all hell broke loose."

According to Belgrano, the company faced serious fines and serious restrictions within hours. The legislation is in Europe and it will come to the UK as well, he added.

Design technology leads the way At Oyster, as with many boatbuilders, major advances haven't just come in materials and tooling but also CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAM (Computer Aided Machinery).

"This has helped us push the development of new products through a lot quicker, " said Creed. "You can visualise things much better with 3D modelling and it's been immensely helpful in getting things right first time."

Clive Brooks, sales manager of Princess Yachts, agrees.

"There's been a phenomenal investment over the past twenty years in manufacturing and the CAD/CAM machines are incredibly versatile, " he said. "We have 5-axis machines that are infinitely variable and you can programme the tooling or cutting end in five different directions."

Princess have six of these machines used for fitting out and have just upgraded one at a cost of £350,000. Other investments include £10 million over the past two years in new sites, but at the moment they are sticking to traditional methods of construction.

"We use composites and carbon fibre on some of our bigger boat radar arches to reduce weight on the flybridge, but that's not something we are progressing through the rest of the boat, " added Brooks.

He says the focus at Princess remains more on maintaining skill standards rather than introducing new technologies:

"Rarely do you hear about things now like osmosis with modern resins and we've always hand laid and don't use chopped matt spraying at all, " he said. "Many boatyard facilities look at the lay up as the cheap labour end. We don't and that's what singles us out in many cases."

Brooks says Princess gets people to serve a six month apprenticeship before they are allowed near a boat.

"People think that with chopped matt spraying you need a lower skilled person, but in effect you need a higher skilled person to ensure consistent thickness and to make sure there are no voids or air pockets. That's where osmosis starts from."

Working closely with suppliers Princess Yachts build 350 powerboats and around 100 Moody sailboats a year.

Like other major boatbuilding companies, Princess works closely with its material suppliers as resins and foams are constantly developed.

Sunseeker commented that as materials advance so do the tools you need to use them.

"Application equipment has had to move on to suit the more advanced materials such as chopper guns, foam core laminators, resin injectors, gel application robots and vacuum infusion, " said Hannah Braithwaite-Smith. "There are better resins from the point of view of osmotic protection and they are quicker to apply for both moulding and mould construction. The rapid tooling resins on the market are especially good."

Bryan Jones, marketing manager of Fairline, reinforced the view that, for the mainstream market at least, it will be the constant smaller developments that make for a better product for the consumer.

"For example our teak decks years ago used to be glued and weighted down. Now a vacuum system's used which gives a far better finish and durability."

Whether traditional or hitech, the consensus is that technology is always evolving and, as in any competitive industry, the key to success in bringing new products to the market place.

The highly mechanised systems for producing hulls are here already, but for general boatbuilding it seems progress will continue to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary.