Carbon mast polish

If a carbon laminate has no protection from UV then the surface epoxy resin degrades and effectively disappears. The result is the "furriness" that can be found on older glass fibre and carbon parts. As well as continually getting carbon fibre splinters every time you handle the spar it is of course steadily weakened. Try abandoned windsurfer spars in a dinghy park for an example, but be *very* careful handling them!

In practice UV resistant varnishes aren't all that great at resisting UV - we should remember that a mast in a dinghy park in the sun all year is pretty much worst case. You can tell its not that effective when you look at older spars and see the varnish peeling off in large patches - I reckon its doing that because the underlying epoxy has UV degraded and the varnish is no longer sticking to anything.

This is the first I've heard of what on the surface seems like a really silly idea. Start by using an abrasive to remove even more of the surface epoxy and get well on the way to more furriness, and then have some sort of coating that is supposed to have UV resistance? Well, I could be convinced by seeing a collection of test panels that have been exposed to sunlight for a good few years and see which has survived better, but otherwise I firmly believe that a carbon spar that's going to be exposed to sunlight all year round needs all the protection it can get, and that means white or light coloured paint.

A spar that's out of the sun under a cover is another matter of course.

My carbon mast is about 7 years old and to be honest looks to be in pretty good Nick with no furryness or visible degrading or breakdown of the surface coat.  I am just wondering if there is something I should be doing to make sure it stays this way?