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Seldén Mast Unrivalled at UK 18ft Champs

10/2/2008 12:00:00 AM

The UK National Championship for the 18ft Skiff Class was held 10th-16th August firstly sailing three days from Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy before moving to the Royal Southern Yacht Club to race three further days off Hill Head in the Solent.

This event was also counted as the UK leg of the European Circuit. Rob & Peter Greenhalgh dominated racing across the week along with regular middleman Dan Johnson for Weymouth and stand in Simon Hiscocks for the second leg at Royal Southern. This was the first outing for the team in their newly launched boat, scoring Thirteen wins from Fifteen races to take an impressive victory.

Rob Greenhalgh commented after winning the event ‘Seldén have supplied carbon masts for both my International 14 and 18’ Skiff dinghies and we have won both National Championships with these spars on their first outing! I look forward now to winning European and World titles with Seldén’.

18ft Skiff rigs have changed dramatically in recent years as the trend has moved away from flexible glass top masts with hard leech sails to stiff carbon masts with square top mains now offering the gust response required. This change in direction has also meant a rethink in the design of masts, for the 18ft skiff Seldén used the Series 4 profiled section to generate the require fore and aft stiffness to support the new style of sail while maintaining a responsive athwartship characteristic as required.

‘The 18ft Skiff is the pinnacle of dinghy design and performance, this result is a testament to the continual development of the Seldén carbon product and constant improvements that are being made. Through the use of in-house design engineers Seldén Mast Ltd can now produce carbon spars to the customers specification and through the use of filament wound production this design can be replicated to an extremely low tolerance unrivalled by our competitors. We are looking forward to working on more projects like this in the future’. Ben McGrane, Seldén Aftermarket Account Manager.

The Series 4 tube supplied to Rob Greenhalgh for both big and small rigs were constructed using intermediate modulus tow with intermediate modulus tape reinforcements to minimise weight and create the inertia specified by Rob. Seldén’s in house design engineers were able to create mast bend characteristic to match customer requirements and through the use of tailored winding angles along the length of the tube produce a smooth mast curve. Tube weight for the big rig was kept down to 7.8kg while the small rig weighed in at just 6.7kg, a significant saving on rival manufacturers.

Seldén produce many carbon dinghy spars across a wide range of classes. If you would like more information on existing products or would like to discuss developments within your class then please contact Ben McGrane on 01329 504021 or e-mail bm@seldenmast.co.uk