The Avanti masts sound like a well built piece of kit. They are claiming 20% stronger than anything else on the market.
Anybody aware of curves and costings ?

well if the weights they claim are correct i believe them about the mast being stronger (putting a figure on it is a bit silly though because i highly doubt it is correct) because peter had no troubles with his mast snapping on saturday
as for price and such i think the best thing to do would be to ask them or wait till they go on sale in feb

yep knew i recognised that construction of mast from somewhere
CST composites Australia are making the avanti masts

"To beat these methods, Avanti essentially combined them. Drawing on the ground-breaking technique of computer winding a single ribbon, or tow, of pre-preg carbon on a mandrel, Avanti succeeded in making a full robot-built tow-preg mast in cooperation with CST in Australia. Each mast is wound according to an unbelievably advanced computer design suite which runs FEA and predicts bends before manufacture to degrees of accuracy never seen before. In areas that need increased stiffness, more material is laid on the mandrel, one wrap at a time. In this way, the Avanti prototyping process was extremely efficient, and the resulting production run, impeccable. With high-end carbon tow, pre-impregnated with a super advanced toughened epoxy, the resulting mast tube is incredible."
avantisails.com/technology/

www.cstcomposites.com/index.htm
good stuff and well tested a lot of 18ft skiffs and 14ft skiffs have masts made of the same stuff

and col that key ring i showed you today was a section of CST elliptical carbon tube so the avanti masts are basically exactly the same

Dynafibre used to braid there masts onto a Mandrel it was that well woven the masts held their shape before resin and curing was done.

Up until a few days ago I thought all mast were made in the CST fashion as they have been making carbon fibre bottles in the same way as the video for years.

Do skiff masts get bent to the same degree as windsurf masts ? and I guess they have stays and rigging which supports the mast taking some of the loads. Its been a while since I took a look at a modern skiff.

the stays arn't taking any load, the stays are what bend the masts to a particular bend to change the sail shape
no skiff masts arn't as flexible as windsurfing masts but they are under a huge amount more load and are alot stronger than windsurfing masts

the masts still brake for the skiffs though but there is never any random sudden pops they aways have reasons like perhaps the boat was capsized and the mast was bouncing along the bottom or there was a collision with another boat or the boat fell over on the beach

i have not heard of any of these masts snapping on their own accord

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scarrgo said...

alot stronger than windsurfing masts

this looks amazeballs

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barn said...

scarrgo said...

alot stronger than windsurfing masts

I like that alot

What do you mean the stays dont take any load. Every boat I have sailed on has stays that take loads.
Stays can be used to prebend the mast (as in 49ers, 29ers etc) in which case they are taking massive loads.
Even on yachts that have no bent they take the sideways loads generated by the sails.
This is evidenced by the fact that leeward stays often go slack so teh windward stays have to be taking much more then their static load.

JB

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scarrgo said...

the stays arn't taking any load, the stays are what bend the masts to a particular bend to change the sail shape
no skiff masts arn't as flexible as windsurfing masts but they are under a huge amount more load and are alot stronger than windsurfing masts

the masts still brake for the skiffs though but there is never any random sudden pops they aways have reasons like perhaps the boat was capsized and the mast was bouncing along the bottom or there was a collision with another boat or the boat fell over on the beach

i have not heard of any of these masts snapping on their own accord

sorry i may have phrased that incorrectly but on most skiffs taking a load off the mast and supporting the mast are somewhat minor duties for the stays, on a 49er you can snap a forestay or a side stay or an upper or a lower and the mast will not fall down, hey you could snap one of the above all at once and so long as they were certain ones the rig would still stand

if we only had stays to support the mast and take loads off it then we would only have side stays, forestay and no spreaders

the rest of all the rigging is there for the sole purpose of bending the mast and holding it in a desired shape to shape the sails
even if you go talk about the fine controls like downhaul and vang they are both used to finely tune the bend of the mast

I checked out the CST composite site and they have some interesting articles on mast's and tubes.
Have a read of the "news" section 17 Nov 2009 regarding "extreme testing" and 20 Aug 2010 "Rowing oars break test" if you are remotely interested.
They also mention making 20 mast's for KA for a range of their boat sails.They also produce small diameter carbon tube, maybe handy to know if you snap a batten.

Basic pricing up !
400 RDM 100% Towpreg Carbon 19 1.45 $ 920 usd
430 SDM 100% Towpreg Carbon 21 1.45 $ 925 usd
460 SDM 100% Towpreg Carbon 25 1.65 $ 935 usd
490 SDM 100% Towpreg Carbon 30 1.80 $ 945 usd
530 SDM 100% Towpreg Carbon 34 2.15 $ 955 usd

Aussie made to boot. Seem reasonable. Now wonder what they would cost ex East ???

Avanti masts are guaranteed against defects and workmanship for 180 days from the original purchase date. Damages resulting from normal wear and tear, UV radiation, neglect or impact are not covered. The failure of any graphic due to fading, flaking or scratching is not grounds for warranty. This warranty is voided if this product has been sold to a second party, altered, retrofitted, repaired or used for any kind of commercial renting or teaching.

Received an email from Avanti informing me that the mast come with a 12 month warranty. It was a "typo" mistake.