Check your mast foot
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I always felt that the stainless mast foot bearing that has been used on the ctech masts was pushing the intent of the rules.
When i was driving home last night with my boat on the back, the velcro on my mast had blown open because it not long enough. I went over a bump the foot bearing which had been epoxied onto the mast flew off – it smashed the rear window of my car before bouncing down the road towards the oncoming traffic.
Fortunately it landed in the gutter before the next car arrived. If you have a stainless bearing make sure it is secure, because this incident could have ended very differently.
I would be willing to put forward a proposal to ban the use for stainless bearings – interested in your views??
Cheers
TerryI don’t see a problem. Lots of us now have them. To change them would be a bore. Mine is VERY firmly attached to the mast.
The size of them is surely self-limiting by the C of G rule, so if it makes the mast look better, last longer then it is fine by me.
And anyway, they are virtually indestructible, they don’t change the characteristics of the mast, they do remove the need for lots of unsightly lead, and as long as you don’t drive too fast over bumpy country roads with your flies undone, shouldn’t become a problem.
Why don’t we just change the CofG rule so that we don’t lead, stainless, fire hoses, gaffer tape, etc. Are the rules written around what used to be rather than what is. Just a thought.
P.S. New mast on the way and could do without phaff.
TW.I think if we dropped the cofg rule it would start a new round of development. Your new mast would be uncompetitive before you even unwrapped it.
I do feel that dropping 1 kg (or even 0.5kg) off the overall weight would make the weight easier to manage.
When you get your C-Tech mast Tony you’ll have lote of faffing around. For a start the bottom 6 inches of track is made of glass to strengthen it, and the rest is plastic. Unfortunately there is a lip between the two so your sail goes up the first 6 inches and no further until you have spent an hour or so with sand paper wrapped round a piece of dowel pushing it up and down the mast track. Given the prices we are paying you would have thought C-Tech would have done this for you before they dispatch the mast!
Hope you have finished the above before we see you at Medemblik!
Andy
The latest C’ech mast arrived in Oz a couple of weeks ago, it did not need a stainless bearing as it only was half a tin of beer (200g) underweight. Its bend characteristics are similar to a telephone pole. If mast weight reduction is back on the menu it will not be popular with the fatties.
Hi Tom,
Trust all is well with you.
ctech must be using significant amounts of non Hi-mod material in the layup to build them that heavy. My new Aadspars mast is superstiff & has max correctors.Cheers
TerryHi Terry
actually as you know the stainless mast foots are almost redundant on the new c-tech masts. They do not use any glass to make them heavier as the new MK2 mandrell is smaller so more carbon is needed for the same stiffness. The masts are now coming out at a better weight so less mucking around is required. If yours is very light I guess you are happy the rules got changed so you don’t need to do anything illegal to get it up to weight.
As for the new track I think Andy will be happy with the bottom bit as it is to save the problem of the plastic track getting worn by the idiots who do not feed their sails in properly or pull them down too fast. If there was some sanding needed it was not normal at all as all the others I have seen were perfect. I am sure they will be happy to apologise and receive some feedback about it.
see you all in medemblik
Greg
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