The New Mast, Why?

by John December 18, 2008
Tim and Charlie, of Billings Diesel and Marine, look perplexed at the latest insanity dreamed up by one of their more eccentric customers.

Without doubt the biggest, most expensive and most stressful part of our recent refit to Morgan’s Cloud was the replacement of her mast.

The New Mast, The Benefits Of Carbon

by John January 1, 2009
Tuning the new rig.

Pictures of Americas Cup-class boat hulls breaking in half and their masts, supported by a plethora of rigging and spreaders, collapsing in relatively benign conditions, have given structures built of carbon fibre an undeserved reputation for fragility. But it should be remembered that Americas Cup boats are designed on the ragged edge of structural engineering [...]

The New Mast, Amateur Boat Design

by John January 18, 2009
A Hall Spars technician wraps plastic on a carbon fibre mast prior to sending it to the autoclave machine.

We had an interesting to-and-fro with a reader who thinks that the benefits of carbon fibre for cruising yacht masts are trivial and that the same benefits could be realized in easier and cheaper ways. To understand why this is not so, and why carbon fibre as a mast material delivers such astounding increases in [...]

The New Mast, The Bottom Line

by John February 1, 2009
Fast is fun: Our friend Flax who, with many miles as the owner/skipper of a Swan 41, knows what fast sailing feels like, is in the zone while steering Morgan’s Cloud.

All the above is great, but this post gets to the real meat: How much did carbon fibre cost? And what did we get for that money?

The New Mast, Lightning: Myths, Assurances And Risks

by John February 18, 2009
An Halls Spars engineer inspects a carbon fibre mast using an ultrasound machine.

Let’s start with the myths: If a carbon fibre mast gets struck by lightning it is toast, end of story. If a carbon fibre mast gets struck by lightning, there is no way to tell if it has been damaged or not, so it must be junked.