TEST CASE FIRST 36.7

A new Seldén carbon mast was fitted to BengtFalkenberg’s First 36.7, we asked him some questions on the performance of the rig: Seldén - What were your first impressions of the mast? Seldén - What was the effect of this increased stiffness? BF Seldén - Very good looking, seeing the fibres in the clear finish is good. Regarding the set up, we immediately noticed the carbon mast was significantly stiffer despite being the same section size as our alloy rig. Seldén - What about the mainsail set up? - When did you notice the biggest difference? BF BF - Well, we could wind the carbon mast up much more transferring significantly higher loads into the forestay. This was really fast as we maintained a fine jib entry in medium and heavy air. BF - The mast was straighter so we could make a mainsail with less luff curve and more optimally located seam shaping with a larger roach. The rig was just better, fine jib entry and a better, larger cut mainsail. THE BOAT WAS FASTER. - All round really, we were fast in light winds with the bigger roach main, fast in the heavy air due to maintaining the fine jib entry, but I guess biggest speed difference was in light winds/choppy sea. The boat felt like it pitched less, I guess due to the lighter rig, we were a rocket boat ship in those conditions.
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