Well, this is indeed true but we also have got to look at the limitations here.

We are an owners driven class. Officials are all volunteers who do not earn a single dime on the class efforts. As a matter of fact more often it costs the officials money they graciously donate themselves. AHPC is not to bothered by any die-wear as evidenced by the Viper F16 weights so far. If anything the extra wallthickness is considered an additional "fools"-margin when handling the spi.

AHPC owns the die and the other builders, agents and dealors can their masts from AHPC authorized production runs under a "general F16 class usage" agreement I brokered back in 2002.

Assuming that the wall thickness of the Superwing masts have increased from 1.6 mm to 1.85 mm by a die wearing out or because the production proces parameters were changed then there is little we can do at this time. AHPC is the party that can persue solutions, not us. That is unless we as a class buy our own die and enter into a production agreement with the extruder ourselves.

The latter thing is a serious possibility but not without the class creating some revenue streams for itself, ; like membership fees. Several of us have sunk several hundred to several thousant euro's into this class and buying a new die is just a bridge too far for this small group of dedicated volunteers. That is why the other project (=new alu mast design) was put on hold. Lets not forget that the F16 sailors have been stuck on a "free-rider" mode for the last 7 years now. All class business was performed on a free-of-charge basis.

So I'm not sure what the boffins can do at this time without some serious commitment from the F16 sailors to supported the F16 class financially.

Wouter