VIC
44 posts
I am looking at getting a North Sails Daytona or a similar North freerace sail around 7.8m. I have a north 100% carbon 430 mast. Could I use my 430 mast with a 40 or 50 cm North carbon extension, or would it be rubbish. I feel the reinforcing for the boom is pushed up way high, and the mast may not like that very much. Or is it fine, does anybody have experiance with using the carbon extensions. It says on the North website that they recommend doing this with the 460 mast, so would my 430 be ok ?
892 posts
The stiffness, and flex curve of a 430/21 with a big extension will be very different to that of a 460/25 with not such a big extension.
In addition to the boom reinforcement being too high (not that having your boom really high is necessarily a bad thing!), you will probably find that the mast is too soft at the top for the sail.
When you downhaul it, the leach will go floppy at the top, but it won't change the shape or tension of the sail lower down as the designer has intended. You will have similar problems to what you might see running a sail designed for a constant curve mast on a NeilPryde mast.. it works sort of, but nothing like it should.
My prediction is that it will be rubbish, and you'd be better to spend the $$ that you were going to spend on that long carbon extension on a 460 of the appropriate stiffness for the sail.
QLD
2315 posts
I reckon it would be rubbish. I have a daytona 7.8, I use a north 490 with it and it rigs perfect. I'm not a fan of the north extender anyway, even with the dropshape you will start to have rotation problems at max downhaul.
