What mast do you use on your mini?
I think the best is 3pce Unobtanium mast as it is nice and stiff which allows your yacht to point upwind better.
Took my planker mini to lefory last Saturday for the French connection meet and the RDM mast is way to flexible for my flexible yacht.
I forgot the fundamentals:
Flexible yacht Stiff mast
Stiff yacht Flexible mast
I had a sail of Greg's (Esperance) LLM T frame yacht with stiff mast and Cam race sail. His yacht was at the top of the lake in one tack. Very competitive yacht. He had a stiff mast.
here are a selection of masts that I will test on my new stiffy mini.
Masts L-R: Mistral Alum 485?; Alum 480; Glass 480; Glass 480 (prebend); Kiwel 460; Severne RDM460; Severne RDM430 prototype; Powerex 430 30%Carbon; Severne Enigma 430 and a couple of carbon mast tips for booms.
Ben.
So you're the one that got all the gear I packed away at Balcatta!!
I'm happy to see it all went to a good home,
The sails and masts were in one hell of a tangle and out in the weather with people stomping all over them- so I rolled them up and put them under the racks where they would be safer.
I toyed with the idea of buying the lot, but the sandwichmaker recently read me the riot act- no more sneaking stuff home
There is another mast and sail stashed at balcatta- packed away alongside the racks hopefully out of harms way.
Also have a pile of sails hidden in one of the sheds here at home - I think I convinced Anna [at least I hope I did] that they are "old stock" waiting for a lift to either Kal or Esperance.
Keep up the good work!
stephen
Yeah Bought the sails from Balcatta tip, but the masts were the results from 3-4 trips to Perth collecting "Free" (petrol isn't cheap) gear from Perth.
Ben.
That is one smorgasbord of masts!!!!
I have to say though that "Diablo" (Cisco's Horse) www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Land-Yacht-Sailing/Construction/Diablo-Ciscos-Horse-Lefroy-Minis-are-breeding/
sailed a lot better with one of Paul Day's "Stiffy Aluminium Masts" than it ever has with the three piece fibreglass mast that I concocted from a kevlar mast with a fibreglass mast inserted inside for joining spigots etc.
I spent a lot of time measuring and sanding to get the mast right and made as good a job of it as could ever be done which is OK for general sailing with some flexibility for the novices, but the stiffy mast is not for novices.
Diablo is an original Paul Day LLF Mini and possibly the first one not built by he. The chassis is stiff with no U strap under the mast step and a bit overweight with my timber cockpit and the sail is a Paul Day original made from a fertilizer bag. and the wheels are off the shelf Fallshaws with knobby tyres.
At the Blokart nationals at Yeppoon in 2009 or 10, no Blokart could catch me including Paul in my Blokart with which he pulled off a couple of first trophies. He will agree the Blokart was a very well prepared yacht and I will agree that he is a lot better sailor than I.
That was some time ago and a fair bit of water has passed under the bridge since then but it may be time to review the original LLF Mini??
