Here I provide some extra explanations of several things that may seem to contradict eachother.

An often heard counterstatement to the proposals is :

"We allow carbon mast, boards, hulls even so why not carbon beams ?"

There is something funny going on with the beams.

Using date as supplied by various builders and carbon component builders it turns out the order of expensive more or less follows the following list where the top adds the most cost in absolute terms.

-1- Carbon beams
-2- Carbon mast (arguable depending on who makes the mast; Hall spars is very expensive and Stealth marine is very attractive)
-3- Carbon hulls
-4- Carbon boards, stocks and tubes (But this one is as good as neglectable at this time)

This may feel contradictionary to some or even many. However there are a view factors to seem to contribute the increases in cost both relatively and absolutely.

We all understand that labout costs are important and that labour cost for a glass hull laminate are about the same as for a carbon layup. Switching materials on this item has some effect but it is very much dampened by other factors.

The mast is labourious and requires specialized tooling and expertise HOWEVER, the alternative of aluminium masts don't require much labour at all but large portions of this gain are indeed lost on paying specialized extrusion yard to work up a small sized batch of a very special shaped section. Than add transport and anodising. Make no mistake about it alu masts are cheaper than carbon when producing more than 8 boats EVEN WHEN you don't sell any of the other 40-8 = 32 masts. The ratio between an in house build Stealth Carbon mast and my own alu mast after transport ed is about 133 %. In absolute terms this is in the order of 300-500 Euro's

With regard to beams the basic price of a 100 mm by 2500 mm by 2 mm anodised section is so suprisingly low that the absolute difference between this and carbon beams is easily TWICE as big as the difference between a carbon mast and an alu mast above. I came out , with my own boat, at a difference of 900 Euro. This is not because carbon beams are MORE expensive than a carbon mast but because the alu alternative for a beam is so much more cheaper in relation to a carbon one.

Of course it is the difference between alternatives that determines the cost savings and thus overall cost of a sailing platform.

The reasons why alu beam are so much cheaper is because these sections are mass produced, are of dimensions that are easily anodised in normal sized baths and are easily shipped. In addition that that one can order small numbers of these sections. If you want just one beam than you can order just one beam. In the case of mast you need to order the smallest production run available meaning a minimum take of about 35-40 masts. These factors make alu beams so much more cheaper than custom carbon ones. I grant this may change in the future although I don't see mass production of carbon beams overtake the mass production of alu in the next 50 years. So alu will always stay cheaper even though the difference between the two alternatives may decrease significantly.

This situation leads to the funny framework where the largest cost saving can be achieved by NOT getting carbon beams. This is what both myself and others have found when looking at carbons beams ourselfs.

The second biggest costsaving comes from the carbon mast although this one is arguably a lot less significant than the savings on the beams.

Third in line are carbon hulls but here the difference becomes small indeed

Forth; here the differences are so small that they neglectable.

As a class chairman I can say that we allow the bottom 3 at this time and will continue to allow these in the future. Both for reasons of acceptable cost, reasons of independence between builders and because so many are already sailing with these.

Only carbon beams are investigated at this time and it must not be understated how big the cost contribution of those can be. This I say without expressing my own views regarding the proposals. I made the above comments to clarify the situation.

For a given builder the added cost of an in house carbon mast is about 3-4 % of the overall price of the boat when producing less than 10 boats. The price of carbon beams would be something like 8-10 % of the overall price of the boat.

It must be said however that in retail the price difference between a custom ordered carbon mast and an alu AHPC mast (now available from stock in three continents thanks to F16 class !) is about 900 euro's incl tax etc. The guys making the carbon masts at this time want to earn bucks on their invested time.

Hope this background info helps.

Wouter