Hi all,
well this thread has certainly got the key boards clattering. It has realy got me thinking, about how it could easily have affected the purchase of the A-class I intend to turn into a F16 [see F16 one up thread]. Luckily it does not have glued in carbon beams but it easily could have, many A-class now have. Of course I hope this boat conversion will be succesful and if proven so encourage others to join F16 by buying a relatively cheap second hand A-class and modifying it, but if we were to ban glued in or carbon beams this would probably reduce the number of A-class available to turn into F16 in future. Of course this is all hypothetical as modifying A-class might not work but it makes me think about the unforseen affects of changing the rules. As until I bought this boat I wouldnt have worried to much about banning carbon masts and beams as I thought they were to expensive, but of course the second hand market is a completly different price range. Initialy I thought I would sell the carbon mast and buy a new alum. one. But after pricing a new alum. one and discovering that they are considerably heavier than F16 class minimum and would cost more than I can sell the carbon one for I am going to cut down and reinforce what I have so in this case carbon is cheaper than alum. I spoke to Greg before he went to Europe and he was certainly very keen on these rule changes being a good idea and had me convinced as some of you could see from a previous thread on rule changes. But my own and other factors like the escalating costs and availability of aluminium mast production [mossies in oz are having trouble sourcing their standard section as the ownership of the die has changed hands and buying them may involve higher price and larger production runs as has been mentioned by others] has changed my mind, I think F16 should continue to allow the use of carbon beams but as for not allowing glued in beams I am not sure maybe they could be allowed up to 7'8" A-class width. This would cover Gregs container problems and I don't think cost is a factor with glueing them in. Don't forget let's keep it fun.
Regards
Gary.