Is the Selden mast a viable option to the chiply?

Yes. But as with all things it depends on what you want.

There are not many of them about as yet and they have yet to worry the prize lists. This would put off the fashion concious buyer and the cautious buyer.

They are cheaper than a Chipstow and reasonably easy to get hold of quickly. This attracts the tight-fisted buyer and the impatient buyer.

If I was buying a new mast at the moment i'd certainly be having conversations with those who've used them (The ones i've spoken to do seem happy) but i think i'd want to see more of them about, winning things and developing some decent numbers to use a start point to set my boat up for it. Those I've spoken to seem to think that if anything it is marginally stiffer than a Chipstow, but significantly more flexible than a Superspar.

Hi Chris,

Tight fisted- ouch!  Cost concious may be..

As some one who has one, it is definitely an improvement over the Superspar.  We looked at mine and the Chipstow earlier this year with a �sailmaker� who I wont name.  The thought was that there wasn't much in it.

But that is not actually the point.  For a mid fleet sailer � which I am � the finer detail of the mast is probably irrelevant compared to the tacking, gybing and starting.  Upwind it is nice to let the mast do the work rather than the mainsheet- the Selden seems to do that OK.

However, I understand the price of the Selden has gone up putting them much closer to Jacko's price. I might agree that if you want to be safe go for the Chipstow.

As to availability, the boat was on the Dinghy Show stand with a/the prototype Selden mast which we have sailed with until last weekend when our �proper� mast turned up � draw your own conclusions.

I believe there are a number of �good� sailors starting to use them now, not just us cheapskates!

Not wishing to knock the Seldon mast as I know little about it other than the one I saw at the Tide Ride on the Sace's new Merlin that had failed on one of its first outings. It is the old addage of you get what you pay for, and it would seem the Chippie mast is still the bench mark.

It was said firmly tongue in cheek!

The Selden mast that Barnsie is referring to is the only one I know of so far of the new type that has broken. Do we know how it broke? Did it get stuck in the bottom? Unfortunatly masts do break from time to time, there are no shortage of Superspar or Chippies that have broken. On the first outing it may seem to be bad quality, but cold just as easily be bad luck.

As an aside if the cost of the Selden spar has gone up dramatically and is within a couple of hundred pounds of a Jacko spar then there is little reason not to stick with the Chippy mast. You would have thought that the mass produced Selden spars would work out significantly cheaper than a hand made and craftsman built one!!

Having spoken to the Saces, the mast broke whilst upright and not at one of the usual points. It was a clean break along the diagonial weave. Wish I'd taken a photo now as it was apparent there was little horizontal (tip to foot) weave in the mast's structure. Should be interesting to get the final report on that mast when Dave sees the thread.