I think an alloy mast on a beach cat will always outlast the competitive lifespan of the platform, this damage you speak of would also apply to a carbon mast, if you abuse something then its gets damaged no matter what the material. A suitable treated alloy mast will last as long as a carbon mast at a mere fraction of the outlay both for the builder and owner. I haven't noted any great number of broken alloy masts in the class that would justify going to carbon, so again it seems to just increase costs and as you have stated yet again, there is no performance gain... (I sure as hell would like to take 4kg off the tip of my rig!)

How about you factor in the cost of all the tooling to build a carbon mast including moulds and oven long enough etc?