Case Study: Team Rafale achieves a lightweight, high-speed foiling C-Class catamaran with Altair HyperWorks

Design and Optimization of a High Performance C-Class Catamaran with HyperWorks

Team Rafale, an École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS) student-led C‑Class catamaran project, faced the challenge of designing and building a high‑speed, ultra‑light 25 ft foiling catamaran with a rigid wing sail and tiny hydrofoils in under 18 months to race at the Little America’s Cup. To meet aggressive weight and strength targets while coping with tight schedules and manufacturing constraints, the team selected Altair’s HyperWorks suite—principally OptiStruct—for laminated composite design and optimization.

Using Altair’s OptiStruct composite optimization workflow (free‑sizing, ply bundling and ply shuffling) the team rapidly cycled through many more design iterations—hours instead of days—while accounting for manufacturing limits. Altair’s tools helped shave mass and meet load requirements: the main cross beam weighs 18 lbs yet withstands ~3,000 lbf, the hydrofoil is under 30 lbs and can produce up to 1,000 lbf of lift, the boat reached 26.7 knots, and the Rafale successfully completed the build and competed at the event—demonstrating Altair’s measurable impact on development time, weight reduction and performance.