Biggest mark up.

Originally posted by Sam.Spoons Considering carbon tube of roughly that size costs about £90/m retail that doesn't sound much of a bargain. And doesn't a D-One top section have a track attached (and a taper?)?

Originally posted by jeffers Originally posted by Sam.Spoons Considering carbon tube of roughly that size costs about £90/m retail that doesn't sound much of a bargain. And doesn't a D-One top section have a track attached (and a taper?)? It isnt a standard tube though.

 

Plenty of examples here:

Originally posted by Sam.Spoons I'd be surprised if they had it specially manufactured.

I understand they spent some considerable time developing a layup that would give the closest possible match to the characteristics of the metal tube. So not just a custom manufacture, but also a lot of R&D to pay for.

TBF the windsurfing mast guys do the same thing and can sell theirs (which are longer tapered sections with a non-constant wall thickness) for significantly less money. Even if you assume they use lighter construction so less material the, typically, 4.6m length will offset the cost saving even without the more complex construction. Even if they have a copied the bend characteristics of the ally mast they are still selling a parallel sided constant wall thickness tube, and selling enough for the economies of scale to kick in to a certain extent at least. But, like I said, it's the price we pay for sailing SMOD.