Marine News

CST has once been locked in as the major naming rights sponsor of the 2009 Moth World Championships. The event will be contested from August 8 – 14 in Cascade Locks, Oregon, USA, with a strong fleet of around 80 boats expected.

This will include a talented team of CST sailors all using the same technology that produced the 2008 World Champion mast and boom.

“After the success of 2008 CST Composites Moth World Championship, we are glad to announce the continuation of our partnership with the class through sponsorship of the 2009 event. TheGorge in USA should be a fantastic venue for this technology leading class.

Just like the Moths, we pride ourselves on innovation and development, to make products that are market leaders in the Yachting sector. One of these products is CST Nano Spars (TM), new technology that will see manufacturing of lighter, stiffer and smaller diameter spars,” said CST’s Managing Director, Clive Watts.

With raising popularity of our filament wound yacht sections, CST has just received a number of orders for large yacht masts and booms.

Some of these include Beneteau 42s7, which uses our 191 D Elliptical section.

Filament winding is an ideal process for the manufacture of thick walled heavy tubing as it delivers seamless tubes with excellent strength, stiffness and toughness.  By using a computer controlled automated process minimal labour input is required, thus keeping costs low. With the correct set-up high output rates are also achievable

CST team sailor Bora Gulari has just won the McLube Harken International Moth Pacific Rim Championship in Hawaii.

Bora sailed a very consistent series winning 11 out of the 14 races with fellow CST team sailor Charlie McKee in 2nd. The fleet of 12 was challenged by windy conditions with boats often reaching speeds of 25kn on the downwind legs.

Both Bora and Charlie used CST’s 340 series high modulus masts and booms, which are yet again proving to be the dominant Moth spars.

Young crew of Adrian Beswick and Josh Phillips successfully crossed Bass Strait in their B14, part of their efforts in raising money towards the Tasmanian Devil Appeal.

The B14 team’s crossing was only 2 hours and 18 minutes short of a record breaking time set by Michael Blackburn sailing a Laser.

The Tasmanian Devil is facing extinction with large numbers suffering from cancerous facial tumour disease. All money raised from the event has gone towards the scientific research and management programs for the devil’s across the globe.

The CST sponsored team has now returned to Tasmania for some well earned rest after competing at Melbourne’s Black Rock sailing club over the weekend.

To find out more about the fund raiser visit their website:  http://www.strait4devils.com.au/

CST composites continues to develop its range of carbon fibre yachting spars. We have just completed a sample section 300mmx190mm inside diameter suitable for yachts around 50ft in length.

The new D section uses the same filament winding technology used to produce multiple class winners in dinghy classes as well as sections used by the popular Flying Tiger 10 class.

The J.J. Giltinan Championships sailed on Sydney Harbour saw one of the closest finishes to date, decided meters before the finish of the last race.

Early series leader Active Air-2UE skippered by Matt Searle, sailed a very consistent regatta finishing only 1 point behind the eventual winner Southern Cross Constructions (Euan Mc Nicol).

The series was wide open coming into the final Heat 7, with any one of the top 3 boats in with a chance.

Active Air-2UE were in a dominant position early in the race as Southern Cross Constructions were 4 minutes behind, after a disastrous start. With 2 laps to go Active Air-2UE still looked strong, with Southern Cross doing everything they could fighting their way through the fleet. The light and fickle breeze saw 90 degree shifts, allowing Southern Cross to make big gains on the leaders with a lap to go.

During the last downwind run, the title was still open. Active Air-2UE had to finish 2nd and get Gotta Love It 7 between them and Southern Cross. It all looked promising until the young team on Panasonic pipped them on the finish line to get 2nd. Active Air was relegated to 3rd, and Southern Cross climbed to 4th. One place behind Active Air-2UE and enough to give them the series.

Rag and Famish hotel also sported the latest rig from CST Composites and showed some good form winning the NSW Championship before the start of J.J. series. They looked strong after 4 heats, but slipped back towards the end of the regatta, to finish 5th overall.  CST rigs were also used by Smeg, SLAM and Pure Blonde all finishing inside the top 10.

It has been a massive year here at CST Composites with 12 National and 6 World title wins to our name. Out of those six world titles some of them have come from the prestige classes as well as leading edge skiff technology such as; Moths, I 14’s, A-Class Cats, 12ft Skiffs and the Contender class. Our high standard and quality products are not only evident in those classes but with 12 National wins in: 12ft skiffs, B14’s, I 14’s, Cherub, Flying Dutchman, Javelin, NS14, Skate and the Vee Ess. Here at CST composites we are proving to be the leading supplier for high quality lightweight and top performance spars.

 12 Years ago CST started pioneering with filament wound tubing for masts in small dingys and skiffs. By using our unique process we have supplied the fastest skiffs all over the world with flexible, responsive tapered masts and beams that have outperformed the competition. Managing Director, Clive Watts had the foresight to see that filament winding could provide tube with an automated process, high quality and repeatability that sailors look for in a product. This was the way of the future compared to pre-impregnated fibers that were traditionally roll wrapped and could not compete with filament winding.  The current haul for this year shows that we are the best providers of filament wound lightweight, high performing masts and beams.

To move with development times we have introduced our new range of high modulus masts. These new masts are filament wound using epoxy resin and “High Modulus” carbon fibre to give responsive, lightweight and tough masts. These masts are smaller in diameter and lighter in weight. Generally mast stiffness has increased with square top mains and have been individually developed with each of the classes.

With all the new developments CST Composites is heading into an exciting 2009.  By the end of January machine number six will be online, which can wind four times faster whilst still maintaining our high quality. The entire factory is in the middle of a retro-fit with a second level being added enabling us to expand our fabrication and pultrision capabilities, this includes the recently launched sail battens for yachts and skiffs.

We continue to build our filament winding infrastructure as we aim to provide the best quality, highest performance and economical spars on the market today.