Carbon Spars on Storerboats

**keyhavenpotter** · 28th January 2011, 09:31 PM

The dyneema was 3mm. I raced it hard for three seasons, and planned to replace it after the last race of the season. I was leading by a fair way and a shroud parted. I had always feared it might happen, 3mm is very thin. Interestingly, the rig is so light that it just sort of dropped into the boat, no force at all and all teh spars were fine. the mast was free to fall over, not held at deck level or below. that would have broken it.

It parted at the masthead at a knot. Since any knot reduces the strength I spliced the replacement rigging. Used 3mm again.

It's very strong, 4mm would be fine for the Goat.However it does stretch oddly, or at least the basic dyneema I used did. I would set the rigging tight and then after a hard sail it would be loose when I got back in. Then when arriving for my next sail it would be tight again, having "recovered".

I have since learnt that there is a special dyneema which the 4x4 guys use for towing out Landrovers when they are stuck and it is pre-stretched or treated in some way. So if I were to rig a larger dinghy such as a Goat I would use 4mm pre-stretched.

Bye the way, dyneema stays are much nicer than wire to have on the boat.

Brian

**keyhavenpotter** · 28th January 2011, 10:41 PM

You see, the more stays, the lighter the spars, you know it makes sense!

**robhosailor** · 29th January 2011, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by keyhavenpotter

You see, the more stays, the lighter the spars, you know it makes sense!

It's really fantastic!!!

Thank you!

...a bit similar to this:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K55yF-RR0SE"]YouTube - pacific proa "Pjoa" sailing under crabclaws-32sec[/ame]

**Gizzle** · 8th February 2011, 07:58 AM

Originally Posted by keyhavenpotter

If you add Carbon Fibre Tubes UK for a UK supplier.

Carbon Fibre Tubes

Hi Brian,
I called these chaps today and was told that they don't (or no longer) deal with individuals but only sell in larger quantities. Shame as they are only about 10mins down the road from me

Cheers, G

**keyhavenpotter** · 8th February 2011, 09:01 AM

Might be worth just calling in to talk things over. The standard tapered tube used might well be not stiff enough for the larger goat sail, so they would not want to do a special.

I found the same problems when trying to obtain sail materials. It's just too much trouble to set up an account etc, so some I managed to talk round simply by calling in with cash in my pocket. This avoided all the problems of setting up trading accounts.

My wooden yard for the Raid41 worked fine and I made the sail myself, so someone like Sanders Sails would do a superb job as long as you have a spec bend spar.

I enjoyed the carbon spars I used and it's a great shame if the only carbon tube supplier I could find will no longer supply individuals.

I think I would just use alloy tubes next time. Cheaper, quicker and fine for 300 LR Scows build so far. Yes, that's over 300 now, I just heard John is going over sail number 505 (started at 200) when his 16 boat order book is caught up. That's the whole of 2011!

In fact Pete Saunders told me some years back the tapered yard is used simply because John bought a job lot of alloy windsurfing masts and it would be much better if the yard was not tapered but a constant bend.

Brian

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