Carbon fiber rigging prices vs 10-15 years ago.

[SeraphimInt]

Hello all,

This is my first post so if it's in the wrong place, mods please feel free to give it a new home.

I am the chair for a small non-profit that is looking at taking over an unfinished motorsailer project that was designed from the ground up to provide medical and humanitarian aid to coastal areas. Long story short, the project was began in the mid-Aughts but then donations dried up and the original owner aged out of completing the boat. Now our organization is entertaining the possibility of continuing the project and getting the boat into service.

Since the plans were drawn up almost 20 years ago, design decisions were made based on material prices at that time. Since we are having to recost the list of materials that still need to be obtained, we are considering the idea of possibly changing to CF spars and rigging. As this is a multi-mast design we could convert the not inconsequential weight savings from reduced ballast into more cargo capacity.

I know that specific mast setup will change the actual price, but as a rough ballpark figure, I found pricing data on a CF mast of similar size built in 2005 that suggests the price difference for CF vs aluminum at that time was about +65%. What I am wondering is if that price difference has changed in in the intervening time?

I know that raw CF tape production has increased several hundred percent more since the early aughts, but I also know that wind turbine manufacturing has been consuming a large amount of that supply increase. So I could see it actually increasing rather than decreasing do to supply issues. I have no idea what it is like today as it seems that the major players in the CF spar business keep tight control on their pricing information. I know I could ask for a quote from them, but I am loathe to waste their time on what is at this point essentially a feasibility study.

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks,

-John McCrary
Seraphim International

[Rumrace]

What I lovely project. I hope you succeed. If there is anything you need 3D printed marine grade just ask.
I think you’ll find that rigging wire or CF is around the same price all cut up and ready to step the mast. My boat around 4500$ if you rig your own mast. Can push it to 10,000 with extra club charges and yada yada.
Extruding big aluminum T5-6 masts is not easy work but cast masts still cost more. I use CF at 20% in nylon for sheet brakes and ports. Getting an architect to offer a change in the rigging might save a bundle and make the boat easier to handle. I’d go big and send a charity note to the biggest marine architects out there. Ask if they’d like an opportunity to help the cause cut some costs. There sure have been some good sail and rigging options since 2005.
I’m a retired Scuba instructor as my sport. I have a list of loved shipwrecks modified by owners. It’s worth getting an architect. The rigging on the Beneteau First 53 is slick. Hit the Italian architects up for some advice. They seem a passionate team.

[Jim Cate]

Extruding big aluminum T5-6 masts is not easy work but cast masts still cost more.

Cast masts? WTF? Please educate us about "cast masts".

Jim

[nuku34]

Hi Jim,
Rumrace seems to have some very strange ideas and he almost never sticks to the point of the OP's question. Always offers to do 3D printing no matter what the OP's post is about.