Widening the weight range.

Bell probably went to the wall because all they were offering was dross.

That Little Farr 3.7 is not exactly dross, nor is the Hadron although having studied some of the builds it is trying to stay within the class rules of the Ark.

I wonder if a more modern self assembly pre pack could be constructed, it would remove the biggest cost factor, labour, maybe I shall consider this in my winter project..

I was thinking.....masts are complicated technical things these days, engineered for bend characteristics, stiffness and all sorts of other stuff. What you need is a long thin blank that can be shaped and machined. So why not go back to wood? I have seen hollow wooden masts made by sticking two hollowed out halves together. You could rout a slot for the bolt rope and keep planing bits off to make it flex where you want it to. It could also have a section like a wing mast. At the end you could skin it in carbon for protection.

> remain nameless?

Don't ask, very rocky ownership?

Trouble with wood spars is that they get rather heavy by modern standards

It would be an interesting exercise...I suppose that one would decide on a rough? shape, then laminate the two halves up in strips, glue them together, rout the slot, fit the sail, lay the whole lot on its side (see Ian Bruce Byte C2 video), and plane/sand until it achieved the desired performance.  What wood to use? Yew probably. I was never talking of cutting the branches off a tree trunk, a la Nelson!

The British Moth had a bamboo mast in the 30's. And single wire shrouds. People were brave back then...

Masts are traditionally Sitka Spruce.