Skip to main content
Monthly Archives

December 2013

McNicol’s Nifty New Nacra Toys

By All News, Marine News

CST Composites has been supporting the Australian Sailing Team for roughly a decade. When the Nacra 17 catamaran came onto the Olympic scene, we started development! Renowned Olympic sailor and coach Euon McNicol contacted us with a special request for a new set of tiller extensions for his Nacra 17 Olympic campaign with Lucinda Whitty.

Nacra 17 Tiller Extension

Nacra 17 Tiller Extension

McNicol and Whitty used our products in the recent 2013 ISAF Sailing World Cup in Melbourne to achieve the silver medal. They finished only 8 points behind fellow Australians Darren Bundock and Nina Curtis in a fleet that is studded with World Champions and Olympic Medal winners.

Latest Glue On Fittings

By All News, Marine News

Point-loading is a carbon spars worst enemy. To prevent it, CST Composites are at the forefront of innovation. We are constantly striving to design better products. The latest product to emerge from the skunk works of our design and engineering facility is a new range of boom hangers to suit our various dinghy and skiff booms.

New Boom Hangers

New Boom Hangers

These new fittings are the latest in our range of glue on fittings that eliminate the need to drill holes and fit bolts. When we make a product, we design it with very specific stiffness and strength characteristics. These numbers become less accurate as the carbon layup gets changed. An example of this change is drilling a hole. This severs strands of carbon which weakens the overall structure and alters the bend characteristics of the tube.

Point-loading is a major cause of breakages

Point-loading is a major cause of breakages

Point-loading is a major cause of breakages

Point-loading is a major cause of breakages

In order to combat this, we have been constantly upgrading our products, steadily altering fittings to eliminate the need for holes and improving our already established range of glue on fittings. These new design advancements are constantly producing better products, making them smaller, lighter, more robust, more versatile and stronger than ever before.

The latest glue on fittings are a set of boom hangers that are typically used for mainsheet blocks. This new fitting is incredibly strong, withstanding loads in excess of 1,200kg, but are also low profile, which is important when tacking a boat with a low boom height and also important to ensure block-to-block sheeting achieves the desired centreline boom position.

These hangers withstand in excess of 1,200kg

These hangers withstand in excess of 1,200kg

Glue on mainsheet hangers look slick

Glue on mainsheet hangers look slick

In addition, we have designed an incredibly simple product that makes it extremely easy to install yourself, and also incredibly easy to operate to replace blocks etc. This leads to another advantage of the glue on design which is the extremely high surface area contact. This spreads the load experienced by the fitting through a very wide area of the spar, vastly reducing the risk of failure. It also means that the fitting remains very securely attached as there is more surface to surface contact which improves cohesion.

This large surface area for loading is crucial to consider where carbon fibre products are concerned. The number one enemy of a carbon spar is point loading. This can occur through use of attaching fittings with bolts through the carbon product, or using a thin line around the tube with blocks attached to that. This presents a very small area of high load which can cause catastrophic failure of the carbon tube. This is where our glue on products come in, as the high surface to surface contact greatly reduces the risk of failure through reduction in point loading.

Brydens Crowned as 16′ Skiff State Champions

By All News, Marine News

Another impressive victory to add to the CST accolades came from the Brydens 16’ Skiff Sailing Team as they took out the 2013/2014 State Championships earlier this year. Lee Knapton, Peter Mackie and Ricky Bridge sailed a brilliant series and are full of praise for their CST Composites spars.

Brydens 16' Skiff powered by CST Composites

Brydens 16′ Skiff powered by CST Composites

“The masts aesthetically looks superior, with the new spreaders, clear coat finish and glued on fittings. We are really happy with the way the masts set up in the boat with both #1 and #2 rigs demonstrating very similar bend profiles” – Ricky Bridge

The 16’ skiff class is a class draped in history and with a set of rules stricter than almost any other skiff class in the world, the 16’s have managed to preserve an incredibly high level of competition where other classes may have struggled.

With the 16’ skiff class making the move to carbon spars only recently, there has been a lot of scrutiny on the new developments and CST Composites is proud to be leading the fleet and setting the bar high for any other competitors (sailors or manufacturers!) who wish to compete within the fabled and historic class of 16’ skiffs!

Brydens Crowned as 16′ Skiff State Champions

By All News, Marine News

Another impressive victory to add to the CST accolades came from the Brydens 16’ Skiff Sailing Team as they took out the 2013/2014 State Championships earlier this year. Lee Knapton, Peter Mackie and Ricky Bridge sailed a brilliant series and are full of praise for their CST Composites spars.

Brydens 16' Skiff powered by CST Composites

Brydens 16′ Skiff powered by CST Composites

“The masts aesthetically looks superior, with the new spreaders, clear coat finish and glued on fittings. We are really happy with the way the masts set up in the boat with both #1 and #2 rigs demonstrating very similar bend profiles” – Ricky Bridge

The 16’ skiff class is a class draped in history and with a set of rules stricter than almost any other skiff class in the world, the 16’s have managed to preserve an incredibly high level of competition where other classes may have struggled.

With the 16’ skiff class making the move to carbon spars only recently, there has been a lot of scrutiny on the new developments and CST Composites is proud to be leading the fleet and setting the bar high for any other competitors (sailors or manufacturers!) who wish to compete within the fabled and historic class of 16’ skiffs!

CST International 14 Wins Fourth Straight World Championship

By All News, Marine News

Winning a World Championship is a feat that many people can only dream of. But for Archie Massey and Dan Wilsdon of GBR1519, it seems to be a recurring theme. These amazing sailors managed to win the recent 2013 International 14 World Championship held at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, notching up Archie’s 4th straight win and Dan’s 3rd straight win. Clearly these boys must have something that others don’t.

Archie Massey and Dan Wilsdon of GBR1519 in Canada

Archie Massey and Dan Wilsdon of GBR1519 in Canada

 

Their boat has been sporting a CST Composites rig and boom since they started winning World Championships and it has been paying consistent and clear dividends. The latest edition that they featured in this most recent Championship was our 125mm boom and HM 4 model mast. This is a one piece mast that offers many advantages over its two piece counterparts;

No sleeve in the middle of the mast means that the mast retains it’s even luff curve that presents the perfect glove to match the slick suit of sails from Dave Alexander Sails. The lack of a sleeve also reduces the weight of the mast, and other exclusive engineering advancements led to an overall weight reduction of 20% compared older models and competitors.

Not only has the mast slimmed down, it has been stiffened up. This provides a stiffer mast profile whilst still maintaining the automatic gust response tip which is so coveted by skiff sailors. This new design is perfectly suited to modern sails where the flat top mainsails are becoming bigger and more powerful in a class renowned for being at the forefront of speed increase technology.

The HM 4 mast from CST Composites has been completely redesigned with speed in mind. Not only is this mast more suited to the constantly changing world of sail shape in the quest for speed, but it follows the recipe of “Lose weight to add speed”, including moulded spreaders to reduce drag, increase consistency and reliability whilst also keeping the kilograms to a minimum.

CST International 14 Wins Fourth Straight World Championship

By All News, Marine News

Winning a World Championship is a feat that many people can only dream of. But for Archie Massey and Dan Wilsdon of GBR1519, it seems to be a recurring theme. These amazing sailors managed to win the recent 2013 International 14 World Championship held at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, notching up Archie’s 4th straight win and Dan’s 3rd straight win. Clearly these boys must have something that others don’t.

Archie Massey and Dan Wilsdon of GBR1519 in Canada

Archie Massey and Dan Wilsdon of GBR1519 in Canada

 

Their boat has been sporting a CST Composites rig and boom since they started winning World Championships and it has been paying consistent and clear dividends. The latest edition that they featured in this most recent Championship was our 125mm boom and HM 4 model mast. This is a one piece mast that offers many advantages over its two piece counterparts;

No sleeve in the middle of the mast means that the mast retains it’s even luff curve that presents the perfect glove to match the slick suit of sails from Dave Alexander Sails. The lack of a sleeve also reduces the weight of the mast, and other exclusive engineering advancements led to an overall weight reduction of 20% compared older models and competitors.

Not only has the mast slimmed down, it has been stiffened up. This provides a stiffer mast profile whilst still maintaining the automatic gust response tip which is so coveted by skiff sailors. This new design is perfectly suited to modern sails where the flat top mainsails are becoming bigger and more powerful in a class renowned for being at the forefront of speed increase technology.

The HM 4 mast from CST Composites has been completely redesigned with speed in mind. Not only is this mast more suited to the constantly changing world of sail shape in the quest for speed, but it follows the recipe of “Lose weight to add speed”, including moulded spreaders to reduce drag, increase consistency and reliability whilst also keeping the kilograms to a minimum.