As we move through the years the tech stuff gets significantly cheaper as the manafacturers chase new markets for their product, there is after all a very limited market place at the moment and once those sales are done the makers will need new customers to stay in business, its only a question of time before a carbon mast is going to be affordable for most.... when that will be exactly is anyones guess




Be interesting to see whats available in the 'off the shelf' product range, looking forward to the results of your "looksy"
One thing we haven't looked at yet is having our own dies made for a section we design purely for the class, on a visit to comalco many years back there was a heap of various shapes but none were available to be sold to the general public as other companies "owned" the dies, the dies weren't to be used for any other things except for their product and part of that agreement was that the dies never left comalco....
I have no idea as to how much a die would cost today





You'd need to attatch it in several spots along the length of the mast or the tube would simply remain straight as the mast section belly-danced around it during light loading, it would only help stiffen the mast section when the mast was bent enough to contact the tube and start bending the tube....
the other thing is the smaller tube sizes don't have much in the way of stiffness unless they are a heavy walled tube which sort of cancels out the weight issue a bit. What I was toying with was a 60mm tube with a 1mm wall thickness pressed into the mast section and then riveted on the sides of the mast say every 200mmm..... bloody stiff and reasonable weight wise, my only problem with the idea is the mast length compared to the off the shelf tubes, some tubes come in 6.5m lengths and others are only in 6m lengths.....





I think we need to consider the option of carbon as a future upgrade, as to when .. 2years ..5years ... 10 years from now, I don't know, but it would make sense to upgrade to an alloy mast now that is similar in size to whats currently available in the carbon world, one of the reasons I mentioned the 4.9tiapan superwing mast, I think we'll see more of these shapes in the future....
Its anyones guess as to what will be around in the future, for all we know right now the future mosquito may well be well beyond a square top sail and be using a wing like the current AC72's and with stays being made from carbon and trap wires from what dribbles from the butt of some rare Brazilian insect... or it will long be forgotten except by some dottering old fools at a retirement village on the moon






You hit the nail on the head Ross !!!

Having been absent from the sport for many years I was shocked that the mosquito was still around, I thought it would have long gone the way of the quick-cat and sol-cat which were on their way out when I sold my first mozzie.
To find out not only that they had survived but were being actively sailed in ever growing numbers was a complete and utter supprise, then to see the quality of the people sailing them both on the water and away from the boat was an even greater blessing..... add in the fact that there are multiple ways to sail a mozzie is a very rare thing for any class.

the ultimate recognition I've had since re-entering the sport was.......

you mosquito sailors are a rare breed, bloody tenacious lot to say the least


and I've heard that from a few people now