I have been following this thing for some time and watch how people think about things. I see for some reason that Wouter is anti carbon and he is an alu fetish, but i have to say that the boom he did designed will be working but you will never been hit by this shape because the damage would be severe.

Quote:
Carbon is the worst material for lazy engineers, because it is not homogeneous and can have different properties in different directions. It is a very hard material to design with. But can be amazing when used correctly.

I agree with this because it is the biggest problem with carbon, you don't have 1 type of carbon but several types and than not only the type of cloth or UD but also in flexibelity and than you have a lot of different types of resin where you can work with and i can a sure you that you don't have the time to follow the whole development in carbon and resins because it is going to fast.
The thing Wouter is right, is the money and carbon will be more expensive at this time than aluminium but i am also following the prices for the metal market (stainless,Alu)and i have to tell you that the prices for metals is going up more rapid than carbon.
The trick on this is that you try to get a design that is within the budget you have, or in alu,wood or carbon.

Regards,
Hans