Carbon fibre mast

[bluemoongaffer]

I'm thinking of treating Bluemoon to a carbon fibre mast. Sounds expensive but actually not too bad as it's only 6.7m long. (At least that's the line I've taken with Mrs Bluemoon).

I've looked at the theory (and spoken to the salesmen) and apart from being much easier to lift up / down and having lower maintenance, I'm hoping for some performance improvement with reduced pitching and less heel. The current wooden mast weighs about 40kg. The carbon fibre one will be around 12kg. Boat is 19ft, 1500kg displacement

I wondered if anybody has practical experience of changing over to carbon. What difference did it make?

Thanks in advance

 

[sailorman]

I'm thinking of treating Bluemoon to a carbon fibre mast. Sounds expensive but actually not too bad as it's only 6.7m long. (At least that's the line I've taken with Mrs Bluemoon).

I've looked at the theory (and spoken to the salesmen) and apart from being much easier to lift up / down and having lower maintenance, I'm hoping for some performance improvement with reduced pitching and less heel. The current wooden mast weighs about 40kg. The carbon fibre one will be around 12kg. Boat is 19ft, 1500kg displacement

I wondered if anybody has practical experience of changing over to carbon. What difference did it make?

Thanks in advance

What difference did it make?

buy 2 in readiness for when the first falls over with out notice

 

[europe172]

carbon mast

make sure you spec lighting protection!

 

[penfold]

Not sure what you need to know; lack of rot/no need to varnish will be one thing! Having helped commission a new carbon mast on a big X-yacht stuff is held on to them using stainless machine screws, you just drill and tap using ordinary threadcutting taps. but put them in with duralac or similar as CF is galvanically active and you can get weird corrosion problems.

 

[bluemoongaffer]

Quote: "Not sure what you need to know; lack of rot/no need to varnish will be one thing! Having helped commission a new carbon mast on a big X-yacht stuff is held on to them using stainless machine screws, you just drill and tap using ordinary threadcutting taps."

Looking for info on how / whether sailing performance improved for boat with carbon mast vs aluminium / wood. Not too worried about getting it to stay up etc (useful pointer about lightning though - had forgotten that bit)

 

[snowleopard]

Lighter is not necessarily better when it comes to masts. The weight aloft is countered by the ballast so if you make the mast lighter the boat will be stiffer but will also have a snappier roll and a less pleasant motion. I doubt you will notice any improvement in any area except your wallet.

p.s. Snow Leopard has a carbon mast.

 

[rwoofer]

I'm thinking of treating Bluemoon to a carbon fibre mast. Sounds expensive but actually not too bad as it's only 6.7m long. (At least that's the line I've taken with Mrs Bluemoon).

I've looked at the theory (and spoken to the salesmen) and apart from being much easier to lift up / down and having lower maintenance, I'm hoping for some performance improvement with reduced pitching and less heel. The current wooden mast weighs about 40kg. The carbon fibre one will be around 12kg. Boat is 19ft, 1500kg displacement

I wondered if anybody has practical experience of changing over to carbon. What difference did it make?

Thanks in advance

Only have experience of carbon masts on dinghies (which are actually about the same length) and they make a dramatic difference. Naturally the mast is a much bigger proportion of the overall weight, but when I get my next boat around the 21ft mark, I will certainly spec carbon if there is the option. With dyneema stays mast raising and lowing gets even easier.

Check out Swallowboats (http://www.swallowboats.com/) as they spec all their cruisers with carbon masts and dyneema rigging even though they are traditional looking....

 

[fireball]

What difference did it make?

buy 2 in readiness for when the first falls over with out notice

Absolute rubbish!

You can bend and straighten carbon spars far easier than Ali spars.

Providing the spar is correctly specced and supported it will be absolutely fine.

 

[rwoofer]

Absolute rubbish!

You can bend and straighten carbon spars far easier than Ali spars.

Providing the spar is correctly specced and supported it will be absolutely fine.

Second that. These days it has almost become the opposite due to corrosion in aluminium.