Warren,
I took the liberty of forwarding your question to the class because it is a
good one.
I've used both bulkhead material and built up glass (like you've made) for
backing. I think bulkhead material works great for the pole ring backing
because you can use some filler under it and spread the load out (the filler
will
keep it from rocking). Two places where you really want to pay attention is
the backing for the block behind the spinnaker cleat and the block behind the
sock. These spinnaker blocks have a lot of load when you're hoisting and
dousing the kite. I'd use a larger patch of bulkhead material (4" diameter)
with a smaller patch of your glass material (2 1/2" diameter) to keep the tee
nuts from pulling into the bulkhead material on these two blocks.
Best regards,
Bram
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