Anyone have and use a Carbon Spinnaker Pole from Forte?

[Sailing Hope]

Hello

Loooking to purchase a carbon Spinnaker Pole from Defender. They carry a brand from a company called Forte. Our aluminum pole is too heavy and we tend not to use it much. Anyone have one of the poles from Forte....would you recommend getting one from them/Defender. Would love to improve our down wind sailing.

TIA
sv Hope
49 Hylas

[Stumble]

Forte really just supplies the pole, the end fittings are from other manufacturers.

since you already have the fittings from your current pole I would recommend buying a carbon pole and moving the end fittings over, depending on size and design it could save you $1,000, and then scrap the aluminium pole.

Forte does a nice job on CF poles, but they don't do anything special. Pretty much any carbon tube the right size/length will work, so long as it is not filament wound. Filament winding puts all the fibers in the wrong orientation for spinnaker poles.