Barcos Deportivos was still in the throws of finishing the now hugely successful Frers 43m aluminium sloop ‘SYL’ when the construction of a new 80’ performance cruise yacht materialised. The Carbon prepreg/Nomex structure was to be built in the same yard from where SYL had just left. A collaboration agreement between Barcos Deportivos and Trimarine made possible the creation of a state of the art facility within a few months. When asked to design the composites facility at BD in Tarragona it was inevitable to draw from past experiences both of the permanent type (re. Tencara, Italy), the less permanent type (re. Adrenalina Pura/Brazil) and the many makeshift facilities built for one-off race boats Trimarine has been involved with in the past years. There were also local constraints to consider, mainly to do with the site location and geometry of the building shed where the operation was to be built and the unavoidable economic limits imposed. We had the good fortune to count on the collaboration of expert Thermodynamics, Electric and Software engineers along with a top installation crew. Fortuny was launched in 2004; it cruised the Med during summer and sailed to Porto Cervo where she took part in the Rolex Maxi Cup in September. Fortuny was successfully exhibited at the Monte Carlo Show of 2004. The sofisticated sandwich construction using carbon prepreg skins and nomex honeycomb core enabled us to build an extremely light and stiff hull that although it has a luxury interior it is capable of enthusiastic performances under sail.