Wouter, Macca, etc. The carbon beams that I am using are virtually the same as for the "A" class with the exception that I negotiated for beams with an external diameter of 3" (the outsides are round). The commonly used ones for the "A" mostly come from Austria and are 3" internally with the external being eliptical as they are "filiment wound". mine are made inside a mould so the strengthening area's top and bottom makes the internal eliptical. The equipment and tooling for moulded beams is much less than for "wound" so I have been able to negotiate with a good builder in Victoria for, what I consider, is a very good price. The main reasons for my prices are that I will be useing the same profile beams front and rear for both our 4.3m cat as well as our 5m cat. This has given me a lot more advantage than for some one going and ordering a "one off" set of beams. Return business for manufacturers is obviously better and lest expensive than "one off's" and this will always be reflected in the prices.
On the subject of aluminum from Australia, the quality of the product has always been equal to any thing else available in the world. If there has been a problem it has usually been with the specified wall thickness and profile of the section as well as the specified "T" strength hardness. These problems are not of the manufacturers but more so of the specifications. It wouldn't surprise me if Boyer and Goodall are sourcing their mast from the USA, not because of the quality but for price! I have decided on "all" carbon fibre because I can source my supplies of components ie masts, beams, booms, spinaker poles, tiller arms, cross arms, etc, in "reasonable number". If I was to use aluminum, I would have to take from the only supplier - Capral - a production run of each profile that I needed. Some years ago a production run was extruded from a small ingot af aluminum pushed through a die using a small press and the number of masts that I would have to hold in stock at one time was about 14 to 17, now they will only push a large ingot through the big press which means that for me to have one mast, the production run that I would have to hold in stock would amount to over 176 mast sections. The same applies for every extrusion. The outcome is that to hold aluminum for one cat I would have to carry in stock nearly $500,000 worth of aluminum. This is why it makes more sense for me to go all carbon fibre. (It doesn't help when the price of aluminum in Australia since Capral obtained a virtual monopoly, has doubled at least 3 times in the last 4 or 5 years). I looked at moulding our own masts in carbon fibre and I came to a cost that was only 4% higher than the retail price for the same section in aluminum, but for us to make our masts "in house" at this time is too inconvenient, it is better for us to source them from some one already set up for which we pay a higher price but a price that is still quite acceptable.
These are the main reasons that we have gone to carbon fibre. The only advantage (which is still debatable) with useing carbon fibre beams, is that we have done away with the dolphin striker on the front beam which leaves us a few options for the spinnaker that we dont have with a dolphin striker. As far as weight is concerned between carbon and aluminum for beams, they all come out at about the same weight, so there is no weight saving by going to carbon beams.
