Yet another incredibly expensive racing boat dismasted due to failure of its carbon mast or boom. Seems like every major race -- the last AC, the MiniTransat, the Middle Sea -- several boats are losing their spars.
Remember when people tried to build mountain bikes out of carbon fiber? It didn't work so good. Sure, it was stiff and light, yet with a certain amount of helpful flexion -- but the frames had a nasty habit of disintegrating at inconvenient moments. Friend of my roommate got a nice payoff from a bike company after his carbon-frame bike crumbled in the midst of a downhill run, breaking about half the bones in his body. Oops.
It seems the stuff fails internally, due to a strain/shear delamination. Maybe perfect manufacturing techniques could fix that, or maybe it's intrinsic to laminated constructions where the mat or roving all runs parallel to the spar, but none interlocks the layers?
How common were spar failures when aluminum was the material of choice, compared to carbon? Sure, reducing weight at the masthead is a priority to reduce moments of inertia -- how about a mast that's aluminum for half its length, then carbon above? Just curious whether you think this material is here to stay, or if carbon spars will go the way of carbon fiber mountain bikes.