New EcoTek No-Styrene Resin Makes Catamaran Cruisers and the Environment better

For more than 30 years, Catamaran Cruisers has been making houseboats that are highly affordable, durable, stable, maneuverable and fuel efficient. Now, Catamaran Cruisers is the first in the marine sector to adopt AOC’s new Eco-Tek styrene-free technology that is better for the environment and the workplace.

Catamaran Cruisers uses the hand lay-up and spray-up processes to manufacture cabins, hulls, bulkheads, galley sinks, slides, gates, rails and other features of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. Typical composites boat construction uses a resin that is formulated to incorporate styrene. However, the new EcoTek H164 polyester resin that Catamaran Cruisers now uses shows how the company strives to be far better than typical.

In a composites resin formulation, styrene serves as diluents for wetting out reinforcing fibers and as a reactive monomer that helps transform the resin into a molecularly-crosslinked polymer. EcoTek H164 polyester has a revolutionary, AOC-patented formulation that replaces styrene with diluent monomers with lower volatility and fewer emissions.

“A primary reason for switching to the EcoTek resin is to create a healthier and safer work environment for our employees,” said company President Dirk Wiley. “Workplace exposure to volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions is significantly reduced. Reduced emissions are also better for the Environment and make our product more attractive to customers looking to make greener buying decisions.”

Catamaran Cruisers manufactures a full line of houseboats, ranging in size from a trailerable 8 feet by 31 feet (2.4 by 9.4 meters) boat to full-time “live-aboards” up to 14 feet by 58 feet (4.3 by 17.7 meters) in size. The spacious houseboat cabins are built on double catamaran hulls that feature individual composite bulkheads every three feet and a hard chine for a smoother houseboat ride.