Carbon Fibre Spars
Ted Van Dusen, shown above, is the engineer/proprietor/fugitive from MIT who did the first carbon spar design for the I-20, and is responsible for the ease with which the boats can be pulled apart and trailed from place to place. It is so effortless that in my own case, I dry sail my I-20 from my basement/lower level garage. The spar is stepped every time the boat is raced.
Ted's company is Composite Engineering/Van Dusen Racing Boats. The carbon fibre and epoxy is wound/braided/laid up on a 'mandrel', a male mould, if you will, which results in an identical shape with every spar. The mandrel itself is a Dwyer DM-5 section, tapered, upon which the fibre is laid. After curing the epoxy in the Composite Engineering autoclave, the new spar is pulled off the mandrel with some serious hydraulics.
The result is a spar that weighs 23 pounds completely rigged, which, when coupled with a proper mast tabernacle, can be stepped with one hand. As for strength, they are virtually bulletproof.
Spars that are tapered make all sorts of economic sense when rendered in carbon, as the taper occurs automatically with the carbon mandrel, whereas with aluminum spars, that tapering must be done with hand labor on each and every spar.
Van Dusen also make the carbon asymmetrical sprit for the I-20.
This spar transfer was done in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, where Ted was for a canoe racing event. Peshtigo, Wisconsin, is the town that burned over on the same night as the great Chicago fire, October 8, 1871. On that night, one 9 year old child named George A. Jarrell made it to the Peshtigo River, where he spent the night in the water, with deer right next to him, as the town burned over and burned out. George A. Jarrell is Willie Crear's great-grandfather.
http://www.vandusenracingboats.com
Other scow spars that denizens of midwestern lakes may have seen that are built by Ted are the Melges 17, and the current 'B&R' rig on the A scows. The rest of the scow world have not come to their senses, and are still using extruded aluminum.
Ted's company is Composite Engineering/Van Dusen Racing Boats. The carbon fibre and epoxy is wound/braided/laid up on a 'mandrel', a male mould, if you will, which results in an identical shape with every spar. The mandrel itself is a Dwyer DM-5 section, tapered, upon which the fibre is laid. After curing the epoxy in the Composite Engineering autoclave, the new spar is pulled off the mandrel with some serious hydraulics.
The result is a spar that weighs 23 pounds completely rigged, which, when coupled with a proper mast tabernacle, can be stepped with one hand. As for strength, they are virtually bulletproof.
Spars that are tapered make all sorts of economic sense when rendered in carbon, as the taper occurs automatically with the carbon mandrel, whereas with aluminum spars, that tapering must be done with hand labor on each and every spar.
Van Dusen also make the carbon asymmetrical sprit for the I-20.
This spar transfer was done in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, where Ted was for a canoe racing event. Peshtigo, Wisconsin, is the town that burned over on the same night as the great Chicago fire, October 8, 1871. On that night, one 9 year old child named George A. Jarrell made it to the Peshtigo River, where he spent the night in the water, with deer right next to him, as the town burned over and burned out. George A. Jarrell is Willie Crear's great-grandfather.
http://www.vandusenracingboats.com
Other scow spars that denizens of midwestern lakes may have seen that are built by Ted are the Melges 17, and the current 'B&R' rig on the A scows. The rest of the scow world have not come to their senses, and are still using extruded aluminum.
A finished Van Dusen spar, showing a bit of the spreader detail. These exotic little spreaders come out of Selden/Proctor, and are fixed while sailing. The sweep of the spreaders may be adjusted by the turnbuckles, the purple bits in the photo above. Inasmuch as the spreaders are made in England, we are debating whether or not to call the turnbuckles 'bottlescrews'.
