Broken mast epidemic

seen alot lately, had a few break lately, is the main reason that we over night have grown into hulks and break kit now???

but seriously, i have seen ALOT of broken masts lately is this due to a drop in product quality control???

Gaa... My replacement mast must be better.
It claims "Fusion Technology With Infinite Energy".
That infinite energy might produce an extremely loud bang when it lets go.

hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

seen a lot of sdm masts break, especially 100% carbon race masts, and even a few 75% too, all new or current model masts too

and most of the time its near the boom 200mm above or below

are the cams putting too much tension on the mast??

A lot broken. I am curious about place of manufacture. What brands are getting their masts out ofChina? Could that be a factor?

Well, I have a mate who broke his BRAND new race mast today first sail with it, justed snapped sailing along, what is going on.

Broken masts are ridiculous. People sailing on sheltered water might not worry about it so much but those sailing open waters have a right to be more concerned. Brands with reputations for fragility have no appeal for me or any business being taken into wild waters.

Well the day I start breaking gear like that I will switch brands Ragner. Going off queens you need to have complete confidence in the gear. With all the bulls sharks in the bay chances of swimming back are not great. I use only skinny masts offshore, and I test once on flat water before using them off shore to make sure they aren't faulty. So far in 17 years of sailing I haven't broken one mast. And I am heavy weight.

So what brand are these? Severne I guess?

It's the 787's fault

It is no secret that we have had some issues with the first batches of our Enigma Race masts

This was mainly in the 430 sizing.

Unfortunately many of these these were made sub spec from our mast factory in Europe.

This surprised us because the quality on our 75 % Carbon Bluelines, 100% RDM Redlines, RDM Gorillas (2 year unconditional warranty) - all from the same factory has been incredible.

Mast issues on the bleeding edge of Race performance are not unheard of - anyone that has been in the sport for a period of time knows that virtually every major brand has had a batch issue of some sort over the years - it seems there are a few brands experiencing issues right now.

There is generally a background breakage rate when you are pushing gear to get the edge - an extra 3 meters of distance covered over a PWA slalom course can make the difference between 20th place and a podium finish. This gear has usually travelled alot (which causes issue in and of itself) - add various boom stresses, wipeouts, large tensions on sails into the mix and you have quite a dynamic situation. PWA racers will travel with a big pile of masts.

The ledge to Lancelin event was a perfect storm for us - we had batch production issues, untested proto mast layups being tested , rigging in still conditions on a hot day (where time permits most PWA guys wont tension their gear till the wind is up and the sleeves can breathe - unfortunately the small window between the wind arriving and the start of the race meant this couldnt be avoided) and lots of Sails being rigged. Plenty of other brands masts also snapped on the morning.

We also had riders from other brands approaching us to borrow Enigmas off us as they had snapped their own - other brand -masts rigging in the morning - and these masts effectively allowed these interstate riders to participate in the race they had travelled so far to compete in. These were goodwill loans by the Severne team - because we put windsurfing before brand races.

You might be surprised to hear of some high profile pros -riding for other brands who actually completed the race on borrowed Severne equipment


The key to success in windsurfing for everyone is more windsurfers - on the water and participating in events.

Every other issue in the sport is secondary to this key fact.

We believe how you react to a problem can be a major factor in defining your brand - and our response to this mast issue was as proactive as we could possibly make it.

To keep sailors on the water we lent out brand new BLUELINE 75% masts en masse to many riders, we put out proto masts to riders wherever possible from our r and d supply. All this to keep riders on the water while the factory worked through and air shipped replacement correct spec masts to us - unfortunately the factory didnt produce and ship as fast as we would have liked - but this was beyond our control. But we went as hard at the variables we could control as possible.

- We carried out free sail repairs to those that had sail repairs as a result of broken masts - Replaced sails where the damage was major , worked in with shops to supply and back up affected sailors. Currently all masts from that batch have been replaced, the correct spec masts look fantastic - and the breakage rate has gone virtually to zero.

There has been some talk on the beach of high tensions in sails - particularly the Reflexes causing mast breakage -this misconception needs to be knocked on the head. the R3s actually carry a relatively low tension compared to many other race sails - you can actually downhaul them by hand! So it was purely mast issue

This has been a frustrating issue for us as we are proud of the Proven performance adn technology in the Reflex sails - the mast batch issue has been a temporary set back for us in supplying this performance to everyday sailors

- a huge effort went into the development of all the technologies in the sail such as the XL cams, Reflex tensioners and incredibly hi tech efficient shaping.

We firmly believe this is the fastest Race sail available on the market - and that has been proven on PWA race courses -

internationally the brand has been approached by many PWA Racers who have tried and realized the performance edge we are offering over what they are riding.

Some riders are actually paying for their own sails or jumping off sponsored deals as they find they can get improved career results out of better results - as opposed than staying on a sponsored wage on a slower sail.

breaking a PWA racing title away from the 3 brands that have locked down the title since the inception of professional racing- from an Australian design loft - has required a big investment in design time and technology development- and we are in a perfect position to offer this performance to anyone that wants it - by offering the same product to sailors who want to experience sublime technical race performance.

When you factor price into the equation
-and then consider the materials and technology in the Reflex sails-
the sails are very favorably priced compared to our competition -

we believe there is a very compelling argument to consider our Race offering. We do apologize to those that had sailors that missed water time due to the mast issue

- we have it sorted out and are moving forward.

The trouble is all these masts come out of the same factory in Italy and you get what you pay for. Just like the Cobra board factory plus or minus 2%, 4%, 6% the more the % the cheaper the quality. NP gave up on Italy a couple of years ago and now have their own factory in china making carbon bikes, booms, masts, sup paddles etc, and now control their own destiny.