Firstly,
I am still around!!
The reason that the CST spars have been designed with lower spreaders is to
"lock off" the lower section of the mast. I was concerned that many of the
single spreader Forte rigs I saw in Florida had no tension on the lowers at all
even in light airs. They were effectively doing nothing. The addition of lower
spreaders should mean that the lower part of the mast is forcefully thrust
forward when rig tension is applied. This means that the lowers can be used to
lock the mast off at the desired bend for the wind strength. Pulling the
primaries on normally lets the lowers off about the right amount to
"automatically" increase lower mast bend as breeze increases thereby flattening
the lower part of the main as is desirable in these circumstances. I worked
with Chris Dixon at CST when designing the mast. Based on data that I obtained
the CST section will be softer than the Forte sideways and stiffer on the fore
& aft plane.
I obtained my dagger board from C-Tech and their service was awesome. I know
they supply a lot of the 12ft skiff masts over here. Their prices would I
suspect be significantly cheaper than CST. Website is http://www.c-tech.co.nz/
As Jordan states it would require some design input re flex charateristics etc
The boat is bonded and rough sanding completed but boy have I been busy in
other areas of my life!!
4 days in Sydney from Sunday then Adelaide in a couple of weeks for a week. (I
might try and catch up Jordan) At Easter I'm competing in the no2 Ocean race
here in Australia. The Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race.
Cheers,
Steve
----- Original Message ----
From: "BDally6107@xxxxxxx" <BDally6107@xxxxxxx>
To: jordan.afe@xxxxxxxxxxx; email.kerem@xxxxxxxxx; swiftsolo@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, 22 February, 2008 2:33:06 AM
Subject: Re: Forte or CST Mast - Verdict out yet?
Jordan,
It will be great to have you on the water.
Before I get into the mast thing I have a question that will help us plan our
regatta schedule next year (we'll be doing this at the AGM in April of this
year). Are you still interested in bringing your Swift with you to the 505
worlds next year? If you are, I'd like to try to convince the class to hold
Our 2009 NA's in conjunction with the worlds up at Huntington Lake (not too far
away). We can deal with getting you up and back with your boat and a place to
stay up there for you or you and Steve if you guys can make it work. It will
take a full day of travel / set up time both ways and we'd also like to know
what time frame would be best.
With regard to the mast / spreader issue, I will put together a PDF for the
class as soon as I get time that will explain how and why we made the decision
to eliminate the primary spreaders. I think that it will be interesting in that
it'll spark some good discussion to help our members understand these triple
stay masts better.
We are interested in getting a group together to import some CST masts. My
concern is weather the current CST Swift mast (current flex characteristics)
will take the loads if we choose to go without primary spreaders. This is an
important question to me as I likely won't be going back to doubles or at least
would want the choice. I will send the spreader PDF to them for their comments
as well. In the interim, I'll try to get my hands on one of the current CST
masts to see how close the deflection and weight characteristics match the
current Forte masts.
We all look forward to seeing some photos of your boat on the water.
Best regards,
Bram
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