Wouter please explain to me how a carbon mast which is more expensive (in real terms) than carbon fibre beams can be 3-4% of the total cost of a cat while carbon fibre beams which cost less than a carbon fibre mast, you say represent 8-10% of the total cost???? I'm afraid my maths leave me floundering to make sense of that calculation! Or have I read your posting wrong?
The observation made in a posting here is interesting in that "mosquito sailors were finding it difficult to source supply of their mast section". The Mosquito section is one of the most commonly used "wing" type (as opposed to round) sections ever used in Australia. It has been used on many other cats, trailor sailors etc as masts, booms, and beams etc, and traditionally it is one of the few sections that most reasonable sized chandleries kept always in stock. I have been informed by the main three chandleries here in South Australia that they do not intend to stock them any more, not because of any down turn in demand for that section, but because they cannot afford to hold in stock the numbers and the price demanded of them from the manufacturer. As I have said earlier, it is becoming more and more difficult to justify using any thing other than carbon fibre now.