I thought I'd be leaving the poll up for awhile before acting, but with the interest growing in the carbon mast -'me thinks'- I need to create the RFQ emails and send the mast assembly drawing out to Forte and U-Spar
I'm still spending 12 hours at work every day, so if someone else is eager to contact Forte for price and delivery information for a group purchase, please let me know. On the other hand, more requests from more people might get more attention.
Jim Buckland who is building in Australia has reported that the mast can ship in two pieces from Forte . See comments in the "More details on the Forte carbon fiber mast" blog entry. Very interesting.
Update:
Just read my email
Ed Walker is already in communication with Forte and reports an estimated cost of $6383 with all the goodies except the mast step. Shipping costs is not an issue for Ed with Forte.
Roger Bonnot is also in communication with Forte and has reported the same price without shipping and mast step.
It's all good, although I'm not sure how to share the information in my fellow builders emails to me. It would help if the blog comments were more actively used. I know they are awkward in blogger and I hate the comments 'rigor mortise' more than anyone. But, does anyone have any ideas how to more effectively share information on questions like this? Use the public Farrier forum? - ... yuk!
I like the way we are starting to organize independently.
One thing for sure, all this bodes well for a healthy evolving F22 community.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Interest in the carbon fiber mast
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9 comments:
Hi again Grant , just to clarify , I haven't received a reply yet from Forte , Shipping in two pieces is just way easier and also a convenient way of beefing up the section in the critical diamond spreader area . I have also asked a local supplier , Composite Spars and Tubes for a price , their advertised one was way high , $7000 aus so have told them about Forte and will see what they come up with . regards , Jim Buckland
Hi Grant,
I voted "interested but too far away" (just started the project). I'll invite Luigi to vote, he's another Italian builder (joining the main hull these days).
About communication among fellow builders: I use Google Reader to monitor both blog posts and comments (all comments toghether: this was not immediate for me) so nothing goes unnoticed.
I had a look at google groups, but maybe yahoo groups are better. I think a special, separate, "F-22 building" group would be more pratical (f-boats is quite active).
Both groups (yahoo and google) seem graphically poor to me; anyone has a better suggestion ? (I like the forum on bateau2.com )
FYI, I just sent off an e-mail to the person I've been in communication with at Forte regarding a group purchase for a minimum of 5 spars. Will let everyone know what I hear back.
Biol -
I have actually toyed around with the idea of putting up and hosting a message forum for F-Boat builders... maybe specific to the F-22, but maybe not.... I might go ahead and register a domain name and move forward with it if there's interest....
All -
Clint at Forte is willing to attempt a group purchase if there is enough interest in ordering masts, but the real savings in efficiency would only come if they were identical. I am not sure what everyone intends and what kind of time-frame they are looking towards... Perhaps a message forum for this GP would be in order as well...?
Hey Ed,
If you want to host a forum for F22 builders I am all for it. You have my support. We need a common place for activities and discussions like this. I was looking at google groups because I think they are in a very strong position for the next few years. I'm not up to date on forum software. All you can do is build it Ed and see if we will come.
Hello Grant (and Edward)
A specific F22 forum would be very nice. Hope one of you finds time to arrange something.
I originally planned to start with an aluminium mast, maybe even from a used section, to save some costs. But maybe I'll change my mind. I'm not sure saving some weight using carbon is worth the extra money, given the fact that I'm building a boat for cruising. Are all people who intend to buy a carbon mast building the boat to race, or will carbon also be a big advantage for cruising?
Menno
I think that a light mast is an advantage, no matter how you intend to use the boat. Be also aware that Farrier's boats have very conservative rigs, an F82R in my neighbourhood has not had the pleasure of taking a reef in 6 years and is now putting on a 1,8 m longer mast than specified...
I've also been told that the effort required in raising the mast on a trailer tri (ie up and down alot) would be significantly reduced with the carbon fiber mast.
Performance wise I find that even when I'm cruising Georgian Bay in my slow 26' sloop I'm still always racing the other sailboats :) I tell everyone I'm looking forward to passing the power boats in the F22.
For anyone who has shown interest. I purchased two domain names this morning (.com and corresponding .net) and am in the process of setting up message forums. I am waiting to get a blessing from Ian regarding how he wants me to handle references to his trademarks and designs on the site and then I'll put it live and start posting URLs.
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