Neil Pryde speaks out!

> 10 years ago
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nebbian
nebbian
WA
6277 posts
WA, 6277 posts
18 Nov 2006 10:28pm
www.windsurfingmag.com

Interesting that all the cross-ply in all brands of sails comes from the one manufacturer...
waveslave
waveslave
WA
4263 posts
WA, 4263 posts
19 Nov 2006 8:10am
Neil doesn't seem too optimistic about the future of polesurfing.

Check out Neil's forced smile in the pic. hehehe

He's showing a brave front in the face of falling profit margins.

But maybe it's just an evil grin....

He manufactures kites under another brand name.

lol
WINDY MILLER
WINDY MILLER
WA
3183 posts
WA, 3183 posts
19 Nov 2006 8:15am
and his sails are one of the most expensive around!

good work neil.

prices to go up 20-30%...... blame it on the world price of oil and carbon, hmmmmmm ok!
nebbian
nebbian
WA
6277 posts
WA, 6277 posts
19 Nov 2006 8:37am
What's the matter slave,

Still off the water? Or did your kite get stuck under a bridge?
md74
md74
QLD
1064 posts
QLD, 1064 posts
19 Nov 2006 10:47am
the guff over carbon fibre is right, I have a mate that manufactures carbon fibre pieces for motorcycles, he is really struggling with increasing prices, and he has been told within 2 yrs supply will be next to nothing to non-existant for small manufacturers.

Apparently 90% of the worlds carbon fibre sheets supply comes from 1 Japanese supplier, demand is outweighing supply capacity therefore higher prices.

elmo
elmo
WA
8894 posts
WA, 8894 posts
19 Nov 2006 10:53am
quote:
Originally posted by md74

the guff over carbon fibre is right, I have a mate that manufactures carbon fibre pieces for motorcycles, he is really struggling with increasing prices, and he has been told within 2 yrs supply will be next to nothing to non-existant for small manufacturers.

Apparently 90% of the worlds carbon fibre sheets supply comes from 1 Japanese supplier, demand is outweighing supply capacity therefore higher prices.





We manufacture some of our gasket materials as well with carbon fibre, we were told by a number of our suppliers we wouldn't be able to get ANY carbon fibre this year as production was all taken up by Boeing.


quote:
Originally posted by Windy MillEr


and his sails are one of the most expensive around!

good work neil.

prices to go up 20-30%...... blame it on the world price of oil and carbon, hmmmmmm ok!




Plastic (mono film, cross ply etc), epoxy, carbon fibre (from memory made by burning PVC) all come from hydrocarbons and the only people not grizzling about the fuel prices was the government as they knew they could blame Niel Pryde.





Myself coming from a specialized manufacturing industry, I thought the article was a fair comment about the state of affairs in the industry, limited material supplies and limited finished product manufacturers.

Imagine for a moment if you will the sail film manufacturer decided the production line wasn't sufficiently profitable and stopped manufacture, we'd all be back on Dacron sails (for better or worst).

My two bobs worth then.

Alby
CJW
CJW
NSW
1731 posts
CJW CJW
NSW, 1731 posts
19 Nov 2006 3:01pm
I don't think the switch back to dacron sails would effect us wave sailors that much as Hot Sails have proven with modern technology you can produce an awesome wave sail out of Dacron (the superfreak); I'm yet to sail one but by most accounts it's pretty good. It seems though that the supply situation isn't that bad yet that it's driven other manufacturers towards similar dacron designs.

The big race sails though I reckon would suffer a lot with a switch to dacron. Some of the loads in those rigs really dictate the use of monofilm both for performance and longevity.

Interesting times ahead, this world carbon shortage really is a bummer :(
Haircut
Haircut
QLD
6491 posts
QLD, 6491 posts
19 Nov 2006 3:29pm
The return to dacron is inevitable!

This is your future - www.hotsailsmaui.com/2007/sails.php?sail=superfreak

don't fight it!
MJP68
MJP68
QLD
147 posts
QLD, 147 posts
19 Nov 2006 3:32pm
interesting idea, carbon shortage.

when you think about it, if there's really only one board manufacturer (Cobra), and one maker of cross-ply film, we're in a bit of tenuous position as consumers. do we start stockpiling gear now?? ;-)

pardon my ignorance, but if your mast says it's 30% carbon, what's the other 70%? plain old glass?

matthew
elmo
elmo
WA
8894 posts
WA, 8894 posts
19 Nov 2006 1:36pm
quote:
Originally posted by Haircut

The return to dacron is inevitable!

This is your future - www.hotsailsmaui.com/2007/sails.php?sail=superfreak

don't fight it!



Is dacron (synthetic fibre) hydrocarbon based?
snides8
snides8
WA
1731 posts
WA, 1731 posts
19 Nov 2006 4:18pm
ummm may even have to go further back into the dark ages... cotton?
stretchy mouldy dacron with pvc windows!!... bring it on!!!
shmage
shmage
WA
318 posts
WA, 318 posts
19 Nov 2006 5:57pm
quote:
Originally posted by elmo

quote:
Originally posted by Haircut

The return to dacron is inevitable!

This is your future - www.hotsailsmaui.com/2007/sails.php?sail=superfreak

don't fight it!



Is dacron (synthetic fibre) hydrocarbon based?




Dacron is basically a polyester material. Its real name is Polyethylene terephthalate

see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacron

waveslave
waveslave
WA
4263 posts
WA, 4263 posts
19 Nov 2006 5:59pm
If there's a worldwide shortage of carbon fibre....
and carbon booms, masts and extensions become rare and exy,
that's because all the spare carbon is being used to make kiteboards, handle-bars and stuff.

Very soon polesurfers won't be able to afford the pole.
The 110% carbon skinnydipstick.
$2000 per mast I reckon.
The average price of a kite.
Evil Neil's masterplan. hehehe

Remember bros,
Every ounce counts.
Alberto
Alberto
WA
213 posts
WA, 213 posts
19 Nov 2006 6:11pm
Hey guys
Where the blody hell are you?
Superfreak 2007 is available for testdrive and they're already walking out of the door. Sizes to test are... 5.7/5.5/5.3/5.0/4.7/. You wouldn't beleived it, unless you tried them! I'll be in Lano on Tue and the rest of the week in Cott/Scab with some other toys... Goya, Quatro and Tabou. BTW, max respect to the new Hot Sails Maui web site www.hotsailsmaui.com The site is unreal, reflection of the product, well done!
Be there and be real
Ciao
Alberto

WINDY MILLER
WINDY MILLER
WA
3183 posts
WA, 3183 posts
19 Nov 2006 6:24pm
"Carbon is without doubt one of the most versatile elements known to man, as can be seen by the fact that it is the basis of life on this planet. Carbon forms the basic building block of virtually all organic chemistry and of the 20 million known molecules.....etc"


Rare ???

just get superman to roll some coal dust into a new mast for you..

n.b. tell him not to press too hard ot it will turn into a diamond pole and it will not have enough flex...

nice site alberto

pass me another stella thankyou please..
greenleader
greenleader
QLD
5283 posts
QLD, 5283 posts
19 Nov 2006 9:55pm
good interview by neil.

he is one head of business who knows every facet of his production.
spent a few days with the australian dealers in new caledonia in winter, and neil is an open book when it comes to discussing raw materials, product development and also listening to suggestions as he has his finger on the pulse of his company.

the funny thing is that it is extremely rare for any premium sporting product to hold top position in sales worldwide because of cheap copies, windsurfers must be a discerning bunch.

elmo
elmo
WA
8894 posts
WA, 8894 posts
19 Nov 2006 7:57pm
Carbon Fibre at the moment is in short supply as they are starting to manufacture a truck load of dirty great big planes out of it and there is not enough Fibre manufacturers around the world to meet demand.

This will soon change as with demand so also supply will increase, when we first started making materials with carbon fibre in them close to 20 years ago there was less than a hand full of suppliers in the world and they literally had you by the short and curlies, nowadays there are a lot more and with the aerospace industry now getting on the band wagon there will be an increase in production capabilities within the next couple of years to meet this demand.

This is only a short term pain. The real pain will be for our kids when oil stocks start running out.
robbo1111
robbo1111
NSW
655 posts
NSW, 655 posts
20 Nov 2006 1:34pm
You are 100% right Elmo, the shortage of carbon fibre will only be short term, we're talking 2 years then things will start to get back to normal. By the way aircraft carbon fibre is a totally different animal to the low grade stuff in our masts. Boeing are manufacturing the 787 fuselage out of the stuff hence the change in demand over the last year or two.
Crash Landing
Crash Landing
NSW
1173 posts
NSW, 1173 posts
20 Nov 2006 4:16pm
What we need is a new construction material, so hopefully some of our fellow windsurfers can help out with cash/contacts for R&D:

Senator John Kerry - almost made it to president of the US, must know the right people with money to invest in R&D.

Michael Foale, NASA Astronaut, avid windsurfer, must know some techny people who can spend Kerry's money and develop new material!

Anyone else??!!

In fact there are LOADS of people in the armed forces who windsurf - surely they could get their hands on some defence quality carbon fibre?
Longreef
Longreef
NSW
49 posts
NSW, 49 posts
23 Nov 2006 6:29pm
Find a way to turn CO2 into Carbon Fibre and we have a solution to global warming ha ha!!

Neil is totaly right and believe me this years boards even though from the same manufacturer are not all the same. Some brands have chosen cheaper low modulus cloths for their double carbon sandwich that have us talking about many board failures in the next year.

Rumours abound about who's doing what to combat the price hike but for sure Mast and Booms are 25-30% more expansive at cost price to the importer already!!

If you see a cheap mast or boom grab it now!!!
CJW
CJW
NSW
1731 posts
CJW CJW
NSW, 1731 posts
23 Nov 2006 10:15pm
Yes it's important to note that while Cobra make pretty much all the boards they make them to their customers specs and that's the important part. Each customer be it JP, *board or RRd etc have their own layup designs and laminate specs. There is a huge difference between brands in terms of product durability due to this.
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