Here is an Aluminium Mast made in France by Serfiac
It has an outside diameter of 51mm 1.2mm wall thickness at the base and 24mm
OD at the tip 2.4mm wall thickness
The mast is parallel for 2.3 metres and then tapers down to the 24mm tip diameter
The mast balances at the centre 2.3 Metre point where it starts to taper
It has a weight of 2.4KG and written on it is stiffness 7.2
My questions are : How suitable is this mast for a mini ?
Would I be able to make it into a three piece ?
How would it be made? It seems to get thicker toward the tip and also seems to have a seam running along the inside the full length
Cheers Hiko
Memory tells me that these were "swaged" ie run in a sodding great squeezer which reduced it's diameter as it travelled up the length, starting with the 51mm tube.
However it was done it is a clever bit of work especially the matierial getting thicker and thicker toward the tip
Are they common then?
no not now as they had a tendency to suddenly collapse
I have had one which we cut up and used as a 4 piece mast with wooden joiners . you'd still need a base stiffener. it does look to be in good nick, be careful not to dent it
I have the same one for my mini - have it cut in half, with a solid hard wood joiner. I did originally think to put in a base stiffener, but have yet to do so since I have only had it out in 20-30kph winds.
That has been my concern a little that it may collapse as it appears quite thin at the base.
I intend to give it a try I will definitely put a stiffener inside the bottom section
for a metre or more I like its slimness at the top Must be good for the sail shape
Have you found some more spots yet? One good thing about the minis is you dont need big areas to have fun I used to see mini yachts sailing on the top of a carpark building here some years ago at night must have got permission somehow
I use a local park which is near the water so gives clean air
Cheers Hiko
No not really as yet. As mentioned in another thread I tried out on a nearby sand bar but it was too wet / muddy / bumpy / difficult! 
I took a look at a beach about 20 mins away at Urangan, but it is very grainy soft sand, and on quite an angle (not spread out wide) though it is facing the nice SE direction most of our wind comes from.
I had noticed that the wind predictions for Sunday / Monday point to a good chance for light to mod N 20-30kph winds. I am working on a local public holiday next friday, so I might be having Monday off if the weather is right!
Going to have a go at mounting our digi cam onboard and see if I can can some footage.
Where in NZ are you? We are heading over there for two weeks in end of June/start of July. Will be in Rotorua first week, Wanaka second week. This Aussie is going to freeze his dangly bits off 
but will enjoy it as I have never seen snow.
Kids and wife will love it too.
An hours drive from Rotorua in Tauranga on the coast
I think you have just missed the great summer we have just had
That mast is a nice piece of technology. The Froggies really know what they are doing with aluminium.
Has anybody had a good look at the Seagull masts. They are telescoping ally sections with plastic stoppers at the joins.
It would be good to get a group together to bulk buy the sections and fittings for import. Any takers???
I thought there were a couple of good ally mast manufacturers in Aus that were spoken about a while ago that didn't fare to badly with price?
There is Oz Spar pty ltd in Melbourne, Vic: www.ozspar.com.au/
Not sure what they do re. round sections, but might be cheaper than importing from France.
the french stuff is now all 2mm wall stuff that they have manufactured for landyacht masts.
the closest fit in Australia is the CAPRAL ALUMINIUM range of 1.6mm wall tubes in 6016 T83 they have a 48mm,44mm and occasionaly a 40mm,a 32mm ( no 36mm). for a class 5 you will probably need a 40x3mm T6 for the inner. they are all 6m lengths. without freight you should be able to build a good mast for around $160. The stocks are kept in sydney so east coast might be cheaper.
Vic and crazy trav have both got good masts made by somebody else who uses some rarer old imperial yacht sections that he has a stock of. I believe they cost about $300 each( vic will shortly deny or confirm
)
windsurfer masts are looking good eh . by recycling old 1 piece masts ((wally's) the average price per mini mast has been $10 per mast.(for me and sn at least)
good 2nd hand carbon skinnies have been bought offf seabreeze for quite low prices
No, T5 is no good
French tube has been 2mm wall since AT LEAST 1988.
The masts I have made with good telescoping ability are always from T8 1.42mm wall. While it appears that you should be able to telescope 1.6mm tube, in my experience, there is not sufficient tolerance to slide the tubes reliably. Mathematically it checks out, but real life is just a bit different.The tubes we can get in NZ are all translations of imperial sizes so may be different from what you can get on the other side of the ditch. Get it wrong, and they will VERY quickly weld themselves with a friction weld, and you will NEVER get them apart. Scrupulously clean inside and out, dead square cuts with no lead or tapering at all, and slow steady pushing together with a lubricant like Inox may get the 1.6mm together. Try short cutting any of the above, or push fast and see what the results are!
I am not totally sure that T6 is quite good enough either! Close, but I have wrecked too many to be confident. The grade (from memory) was 6361??
In the early days of windsurfing this was a part of my job, we were making upwards of 8 boards a day with ally masts made this way, and we rejected probably an average of 1 mast per day!
the capral 1.6 wall is a great fit. you can put 1.8 wraps of duct tape on the joins if you want a really non slop fit. If they made a 36mm OD that would be great, but I think the next size down 32mm only exists because its a great size for windsufer booms
Hi,
I noticed this post, I have been buying high tensile tube , firstly for gryocopters. airborne trikes and now land yacht masts, for a few years from Bob Kiely
(Light Spars Of Austrlia
6 Horscroft Pl, Moorabbin,
VIC 3189
p: (03) 9555 4622 f: (03) 9555 4965)
Bob still only uses phone / faxes ( as he says he is still using carrier pigions)
Bob has supplied masts for Travis Bartlet(through a supplier) and 2 directly to me.
He tests the tenstile strength of all his tube before he lets it go.
He is a great guy and has had years of experience in making masts .
Cheers
Aus 230
