NevertoooldH18 wrote:
John Forbes:
Really impressive Facebook content. From your photos your mast appears very straight going upwind. Do you sail with a comptip mast? I haven't been able to keep my mast top from twisting off since I've gone from the solid aluminum mast to the comptip. In a breeze the bendy comptip twists off. I have photos from my solid mast days and those masts appear to be much straighter above the shrouds than the comptip.
Hi Jim,
Yes in Australia we run full alloy masts with no comptip. We are less litigious Down Under.
We therefore have a more even curve all the way up the mast.
If you look at the recent photos from the USA North Americans on Facebook (posted just this week) you can see the USA boats have much more flexy mast tips than full alloy.
A sail on a comptip should be able to run softer battens in the top 3 to compensate for the extra mast bend. That being, the softer battens will give you more power in the head, but it will also flatten off easier and earlier due to the more flexible mast tip.
Hope this helps.