Hi,
I am creating a small autonomous vessel and I would like to automatically detect small breaches in the hull to measure the carbon fibre response to additional weight and eventually to avoid (or at least try to avoid) sinking the boat.
An approach discussed in this paper uses optic fibres passing through the main hull surfaces and analyse the transmission using a spectrometer.
Simpler approaches using a led and a LDR are not really suitable due to the latter not being quick enough.
Have you read the paper you point to? Do you understand what is being done, and what measurements are being made? Do you understand something about "signal processing"?
The paper you pointed to is related to measuring the forces and deflections on a boat hull. There are no instances of "breaches" in the hull that I see; that would happen in an unusual damage event.
You're totally right, I linked the wrong paper. This is the right one https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13320-013-0140-5.pdf
As you can see they incorporated optic fibres in the hull of an America's cup class vessel. Again the approach described is heavily based on interference (Brillouin scattering).
The idea is to have a "Mayday" signal being transmitted via Xbee in case a hull breach is detected. I already have leak probes inside the boat, but for instance they can't detect if the bulb detaches from the main hull or the keel gets damaged.
...gives some interesting results for integrating strain gauges into carbon fiber products. But, for the most part, the results lead to very high-end and state-of-the-art papers. Section 1.2 of the thesis "Strain Monitoring of Carbon Fiber Composite with Embedded Nickel Nano-Composite Strain Gage" gives a simple summary of various other approaches to strain monitoring carbon fiber structures. None of them seem very practical for a hobbyist (which I assume, perhaps wrongly, the OP is...)
For a simple approach, I'd suggest guessing where the locations of maximum strain may be located. Attach strain gauges at those locations and monitor them.
(If you have the technical capability, you could calculate where the locations of maximum strain may be located.)