I personally witnessed the benefits of a comptip in action. We were at Division 3's 1993 Persidio Invitational in San Francisco when Eric Rodal and his crew accidently beachwheeled their Hobie 20 into a low hanging power line feeding a street light. Large blue flash and a loud bah-zit. I thought they were dead. But nothing happened to the crew (other than a brown streak in Eric's drysuit) or the boat other than a slight burn mark on the comptip. Yes, comptips do require maintainance and should be covered to protect from damaging UV rays when not in use. But they do work as intended. Another word of advice...look up when moving your boat around. Be cognizant of any power lines in the area. We don't want to hand out any posthumous Darwin Awards.