Originally Posted by Team_Cat_Fever
Originally Posted by macca
when you compare the price for Tornado masts from marstrom you have to consider that he knew he would be making more than 100 masts in avery short period of time and that he had a vested interest in supplying the class.

If marstrom were to make masts for another class such as the N20 they would have to make new moulds to suit their production methods (approx 40k USD) and then build to the same spec as the old masts which isn't their prefered way. So when you throw in the very low volume of sales projected.... the cost per mast blows out to unreasonable levels.


Is this speculation or facts after an inquiry/quote?
With the cost difference ,it would only take 7 masts to make up the tooling cost.

I'm sure it wouldn't matter now, even if Marstrom, Hall,Guck, etc. masts were dirt cheap. PC opted for the Infusion extrusion and that's the way it'll be rather the N-20 owners like it or not(who asked?). Makes better financial sense for them to use the same extrusions. No stocking worries of separate masts.Better buys on extrusions etc.
If the boats will be as fast with the Alu mast as the old carbon one ,think how much faster they'd be with a newer marstrom,hall,guck,whoever mast. If they did turn out, faster everybody would be upgrading just like was done with the rudders ,the tramp, the self tacker,etc.. There's your volume increase. I don't see everybody jumping on the teched down version even if it's the same. That carbon mast(as clunky as it may be) carries a mystique, just about everybody else has aluminum.Yeah, maybe that's vain, but I'm willing to bet I'm not the only one that feels that way.
Andrew, Thanks for the input and info as there seems to be a void in that dept. from anybody else in the know.

Todd


Personally, I don't think it's "tech down". The carbon mast on the 20 is a stump. It was designed a loooong time ago before modern mast making methods and fiber orientation and placement were refined. It's way heavier than it needs to be and is very unresponsive to adjustments (that's why "full downhaul" means permanent hand scarring).

F18s across the world, on the other hand, have done an incredible amount of development and alloy research to achieve a super-light and responsive wing section mast for their boats. I've sailed them and the masts are incredible. I'll put a good bit of money down that the "development" on the new sails is largely to make sure the performance isn't increased too much. The F18s I've sailed against with the 20 is outrunning me now in almost every condition...it's not the hulls and the boat weights are the same.

And now I'm just busting your chops...but at a 15% profit on a $10,000 stick, it takes 27 masts to break even. That's probably two years worth of Nacra 20 sales. If they're a more reasonable $7000, it takes 38 masts.

Jake Kohl