CF Modification Wishlist?

[MarkChai]

Thanks for the support, everyone!

Maugan- I talked to the boss, and we think that we can help you-- We just need more spec's. We'll even send some vacuum bag attacments for the missus free of charge...

Billy-I may take you up on a visit-- no Phx folks have popped up yet.

[Maugan_VX]

Mark,

I was halfway joking honestly. You see, I have a fundamental problem with carbon fiber. While I agree that its a wonderful material to build with, a lot of people that produce structural parts don't understand how to implement it properly, leading to many disasterous failures. It is particularly fitting in the sailing industry where my experience has shown that carbon is used to fabricate under-built components that fail slowly over time.

But if you want to take a stab at it:

Theres the front crossbeam.

Notice the deflection of the mast. It is carbon fiber and weights about 30 lbs all rigged. It should NOT be bending like that

[MarkChai]

Gotcha. I agree- CF is misused and improperly applied half the time. Not to mention the other times when people don't know what they are doing.

Does the mast mount to that front crossbeam? Or do both front and back beams bear the load? We can do some load analysis calculations in the computer...

Whether VX, Inter 20 or otherwise, we will not put out a part that is unsafe. Any major sturctural pieces would mean we work with an engineer. :homer:

[MarkChai]

ok, now that we have performance dinghys covered, are there any other VX ideas?

[Maugan_VX]

Not carbon fiber,

but fiberglass replacements for the cladding. I've wanted to do it for a while

[MarkChai]

What's your motivation? A smoother finish?

[Maugan_VX]

Yes. Something that can be easily painted to match the rest of the body. Plus, if you read some of the threads here, its getting more and more difficult to get replacement cladding pieces.

Fiberglass doesn't scratch if you look at it to long either