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To date there have been two official mast makers in the 600 class, the original Angel Masts, apparently 60 – 80 of these were built and SuperSpar masts. While at the Euro Cup in Riva this year we got talking to different people about the challenges of mast supplies. SuperSpar have orders but aren’t delivering, not to mention the cost is astronomical in relation to the value of the majority of the fleet. There are a few Seldon manufactured masts which were rejected by the class which can’t be legally used.
While doing our pre-Garda refit, we ran into a problem with our SuperSpar mast, the kevlar backing plate behind the hounds fitting came loose and got a rivet jammed between it and the mast wall (See left). This meant the fitting pulled out from the mast (See feature image)
We managed to sort the problem and our hounds are now through bolted onto the mast, with the backing plate epoxied back in place. This got us thinking about getting a spare mast and the different characteristics of the two class masts.
We were able to source an early Angel mast, which we felt was good because when the early 600s where launched Angel masts where the default choice for the International 14 class in the UK. We bought the mast and at the same time acquired 610. Our premise was that the Angel masts are likely to be stiffer than the Super Spar due to the way they are made.
We measured the stiffness of the masts by supporting the tip & base on two trestles and then hanging 30 kilos of weights from the spreader roots. We also took all the rigging off and undid the diamonds fully off. We then pulled a fibre tape measure very tight, so that it didn’t deflect.
The Results:
The results backed up our original premise, that Angel mast is stiffer than the Super Spar. Which given Tris is at the top end of the weight spectrum he is really happy about. The results surprised us in that the Angel is significantly stiffer, around 60% stiffer at the maximum deflection. We had assumed that when the masts where changed the intend would have been that the Super Spars would be close to the Angels in terms of bend characteristics.
In addition we measured the weight, centre of gravity and compared the frontal area of the masts. The Angel’s mast was 1 Kilo lighter than the Super Spar at 5kg and the Center of Gravity is 30cm lower. The SuperSpars CoG is the at the Spreaders. The Angel mast has a narrower section to the SuperSpar meaning it has less frontal area and because the track is faired into the mast in theory it is more aerodynamic.
Our conclusion (feel free to come up with your own.)
For the heavier sailor a stiffer mast is good news, it should mean more power as the mast doesn’t bend as much. It also provides a better foundation for high top mainsails, the stiffer section means that the sail is twisting rather than the mast bending. This provides better control of the sail with the kicker and this allows easier control of the shape and power at the top of the sail.
Well thats our theory anyway, we are going to use the Angel as our primary section for the rest of the year and see what we think. Unfortunately injury has stopped us doing our first race, but hopefully that will be sorted soon.