Page 331 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

And when all that’s done, you have to convince Carbon Fiber and Stayed Racers
sailors—a notoriously conservative bunch—that
this isn’t just some loony engineer’s Bright Idea. Because carbon fiber is vulnerable to impact
It doesn’t help that other manufacturers, some of loads, as well as corrosion from improperly
whom are not as skilled or careful as the people of mounted fasteners, and because it is tricky to
repair, responsibly made unstayed masts can be
Tillotson-Pearson, produce masts which perform relatively heavy for a generous, lifetime-guaran-
poorly and/or break. It doesn’t help that the process teed safety factor.
is very expensive. And it doesn’t help that unstayed But carbon fiber is also extremely light for its
carbon fiber masts still deflect under load more than strength, and extremely inelastic. So, especially if
safety factors aren’t a big issue, fiber masts can be
a comparably well-designed stayed mast (see the much lighter. And if they have standing rigging
mast bend sidebar, though, for a positive side to to support them, they can be far lighter still. This
mast deflection). In particular, unstayed masts have is why, rules allowing, the very hottest race boats
have spindly, stayed carbon fiber masts. Expen-
a hard time dealing with compression loads from big sive like you wouldn’t believe, and so, so fragile,
staysails, the ones you trim in to go to weather. but faster.
With these drawbacks, carbon fiber unstayed
masts might have faded into obscurity but for the ing boats didn’t require the “deck apes” that Hoyt
evangelical zeal of Garry Hoyt. Early on, Hoyt said were necessary to handle staysails. And they
pitched the advantages of the rig with such force that saw that some of his rigging ideas—the wishbone
the public began to focus less on the disadvantages. boom, wraparound luff, and lack of staysails—were
Hoyt founded Freedom Yachts, convinced that he not only unfamiliar, but also offered no efficiency
could do not just a better job, but a revolutionary advantage. It didn’t help that his hull designs were
one. In addition to shrouds, he did away with stays, less than graceful.
staysails, vangs, and conventional booms and luffs So, over the years, Freedoms have edged closer
(he used wishbone booms, which were supposed to to the mainstream in terms of overall appearance
be self-vanging, and used mast-encircling luffs). as well as rig details. This process was accelerated
To make the sail hold an aerodynamic shape when Tillotson-Pearson bought Freedom Yachts
on a relatively noodly mast, he installed full- and hired Gary Mull and other naval architects to
length battens. To make the sail easier to handle he redesign the boats. The new Freedoms are sleeker,
installed lazyjacks and a single-line reefing system and sport a low-mounted stay with self-tending
he invented. Then he led these and all other control staysail, along with an ingenious Hoyt-patented
lines to the cockpit. This last detail is important; if “Gun Mount” spinnaker (again, you don’t have to
you go forward on an unstayed boat, there’s nothing go forward to tend it) and a conventional mainsail
to hold on to but the mast. luff groove, boom, and vang.
Hoyt unleashed his early Freedoms on the world The masts themselves are still marvels of engi-
of yachting, demonstrated that they were efficient, neering (they’re guaranteed for the life of the boat),
easily handled, and durable, and waited for sail- arguably the best production carbon fiber spars
ors to drop stayed rigs like last year’s software. He made. They are built to extremely high safety fac-
made a dent, but not a big one. Why? For one thing, tors, partly because that’s how Tillotson-Pearson
he’d made a lot of noise about how horrible stayed does things and partly because carbon fiber masts
rigs were supposed to be. To hear Hoyt tell it, going are very, very difficult to repair once they’ve been
out on a stayed-rig daysail involved an exhausting damaged. An impact shock, for example, can break
physical workout, along with a strong chance of suf- fibers on the inside of the mast. Carbon fiber can
fering a dismasting from “one missing cotter pin or also degrade stainless fasteners, so fasteners must be
one broken wire.” People looked around and saw isolated from the fibers and installed only at places
that it just wasn’t so. They also saw that non-rac- that are specially reinforced during construction.

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