Carbon Laser mast for club and fun sailors available now

by Richard Gladwell on 2 Dec 2012
A New Zealand based spar and rigging company has announced the development of the world's first production carbon Laser mast, aimed at the recreational sailor and as a training spar.

Although unable to be used in national and international competition, the carbon tube masts for the Laser allow for ease of rigging and ease of sailing through the use of the lighter and stronger spar. The primary benefit of the new spar is expected to be its durability - and the days of straightening and repairing bent alloy Laser masts will be a thing of the past.

Being able to buy one mast for your Laser club sailing life, is now possible.

CSpar was set up in 1996 to supply composite tubing products to the marine industry and professional sailing campaigns. The company has been owned and operated by Matthew Smith who has an extensive background of sailing, from dinghy classes, Whitbread Round the World Races and America’s Cups.

CSpar developed a range of carbon fibre racing dinghy masts in the 1990’s that were world leading and utilised by a major UK spar company, to establish their own range of carbon dinghy spars.

CSpar also developed an extensive range of composite tubing for general purpose use, carbon spin poles, composite stanchions and composite sail battens.

In 2005, the CSpar range was taken over by Southern Spars and Matthew was one of those involved in setting up the Southern Spars facility in Sri Lanka that produces carbon production spars for the 49er, Elliot 6M, VX sports boat, and many others.

In 2012 Matthew re-established CSpar as a standalone company operating out of Whangarei, NZ and broadened the company’s services to include big boat spar servicing and rigging. The company produces spars and rigging with a swaging capability from 2mm to 16mm and operates out of Unit 3, Dockland 5, 211 Port Road, Whangarei, New Zealand.

As well as continuing to supply carbon spinnaker poles, composite stanchions and composite sail battens C Spar has developed the worlds’ first all carbon Laser mast aimed at the recreational and club Laser sailor.

Light weight and reasonable pricing

The spar is available as a full carbon rig, with top and bottom section and boom, or it will be available as individual pieces. Internationally, the market for unlicenced Laser products is well established particularly for sails.

Also available will be an all carbon Laser Radial rig. The weight of the Radial top section is just 1.4kgs and the bottom 2.35kgs for the Laser Radial. Price for the Laser Radial top section is NZD323 ex sales tax (GST in NZ) and NZD450 ex sales tax for the bottom section. Full CSpar Laser rig prices are similar for the Radial top section and NZD525 ex sales tax for the bottom section. The full rig top section weight is the same as the Radial. Bottom section weight is 2.65 kgs. The CSpar Laser boom is priced at NZD390 ex sales tax and weighs just 1.8kg.

Driving force in the C-Laser project is Tony Smith, Matthew’s brother, and a top dinghy sailor, sail-maker, boat builder and now spar designer. He is one of a very unique group in world sailing to have won a world championship using a boat, sails and mast that he built by himself. His America’s Cup experience includes campaigns with Prada where he worked on the underwater appendage construction, along with the famous bow rebuild on both Prada IACC yachts.

The development of unlicenced masts in the single manufacturer classes, have by necessity been price driven, says Tony Smith. 'Often these have been used using heavy 'off the shelf' pultruded (constant wall thickness) tubing, and have been sold more as a marketing exercise. But CSpar carbon fun masts are the real thing,' he adds.

'In developing these sections, while cost remains a factor it has been achieved without losing the real benefits of carbon spars. They’re just so much easier to use. A lot of effort gone into achieving mast bend characteristic suitable for official and unlicenced manufacturer sails. '

The tube for the CSpar Laser mast comes from leading tube manufacturer, www.kilwellfibretube.co.nz!Kilwell_Fibretube who are the original manufacturers for the tubes used in many Olympic and International classes for spars and other components.

The Kilwell carbon tube is renowned for its quality, consistency and competitive price. The tube is manufactured at Kilwell’s custom fibretube plant in Rotorua.

To find out more about the CSpar Laser mast www.csparnz.com/c-laser!click_here or to place your order www.csparnz.com/contact!click_here

Dealer enquiries welcome.