Sharpies Rule!

[peterivanac]

Some years back, Perth sail maker Graham Hill modded a LW Sharpie that had an asymmetric kite and bow-pole. It also had a square top mainsail.
As much as I respect the blokes work with the local Sabre/shark fleet. I thought this was a bad idea. LW Sharpies are sweet boats as they are and the class is still strong throughout Australia.

Agree. Some debate about the mast though. It is likely we will have to go carbon at some point. Like any class, you can spend a little or a fortune on carbon mast with vastly different performance and that is a problem. Perhaps a one-design mast could work for the class but then means the price ends up higher than a free market price. A two spreader mast might also be beneficial at that point (currently legal anyway)

 

[Rambler]

Agree. Some debate about the mast though. It is likely we will have to go carbon at some point. Like any class, you can spend a little or a fortune on carbon mast with vastly different performance and that is a problem. Perhaps a one-design mast could work for the class but then means the price ends up higher than a free market price. A two spreader mast might also be beneficial at that point (currently legal anyway)

With a carbon mast, it isn't just the cost of the mast that goes up.
All the fittings suddenly become problematic and cost a fortune because you end up with hand made carbon fittings instead of mass prodiced SS.

And then there's the issue of attachment, given rivits will soon rust out.
Glue them on and if you trash the mast, you write off the fittings.
Rivit them on and you can transfer them over but you have to foreever keep an eye on the rivits.

Mind you, I'm surprised you can still buy alloy masts. Who is supplying them?

 

[peterivanac]

With a carbon mast, it isn't just the cost of the mast that goes up.
All the fittings suddenly become problematic and cost a fortune because you end up with hand made carbon fittings instead of mass prodiced SS.

And then there's the issue of attachment, given rivits will soon rust out.
Glue them on and if you trash the mast, you write off the fittings.
Rivit them on and you can transfer them over but you have to foreever keep an eye on the rivits.

Mind you, I'm surprised you can still buy alloy masts. Who is supplying them?

Proctor is the only one left I know of.

 

[Xeon]

Proctor hasnt existed as a name in the uk for decades, it’s owned by Seldon . Superspars is our only other manufacturer of note.
Is Proctor over there a completely separate company to the one we had in the uk ?

 

[WCB]

With a carbon mast, it isn't just the cost of the mast that goes up.
All the fittings suddenly become problematic and cost a fortune because you end up with hand made carbon fittings instead of mass prodiced SS.

And then there's the issue of attachment, given rivits will soon rust out.
Glue them on and if you trash the mast, you write off the fittings.
Rivit them on and you can transfer them over but you have to foreever keep an eye on the rivits.

Mind you, I'm surprised you can still buy alloy masts. Who is supplying them?

There are a lot of classes who only allow alloy masts still. The 505 class for one and that's a pretty big one. Selden(formerly Proctor) and Superspar still make a lot of masts. Dwyer is here in the US and they do a lot of lower tech alloy masts.

 

[Dart96]

Mast on our club Laser 2 snapped due to corrosion at the trapeze wire bolt holes.
Selden would provide a new bare section for about £750. Boat value £200?
Cost of masts is an issue, we welded ours but if we hadn't we would have had to scrap the whole boat.
Quite easy to find someone sleeve and TIG weld it.
Lots of guys welding bike frames and making role cages.
More difficult to get a carbon mast repaired where we are.

 

[WCB]

Mast on our club Laser 2 snapped due to corrosion at the trapeze wire bolt holes.
Selden would provide a new bare section for about £750. Boat value £200?
Cost of masts is an issue, we welded ours but if we hadn't we would have had to scrap the whole boat.
Quite easy to find someone sleeve and TIG weld it.
Lots of guys welding bike frames and making role cages.
More difficult to get a carbon mast repaired where we are.

It's actually not too hard to get a carbon mast repaired if you look in a different spot. A buddy with a Melges 24 had a questionable issue on his mast when he bought the boat. I found a carbon bike repair person who came to the mast and made the repair. It was cheap too all things considered. He knew what he was looking at and did a good job and without marine in the name of the company, the premium wasn't there.

 

[Dart96]

Thanks, good point about the carbon bike repairer, I'll see what we've got locally.