New carbon furling mast from Seldén

Seldén Mast has unveiled its first carbon furling mast, a lighter weight furling rig designed to enhance the performance of cruising yachts in the 48-75ft range.

Designed for and installed on a new Hallberg-Rassey 50, the first of Seldén’s new mast range has an electric drive and hydraulic outhaul, ensuring ease of sail handling as well as increased performance.

With the mast section for a Seldén carbon furling mast being 39% lighter than its aluminium counterpart, upwind performance is improved and pitching reduced, said to give those onboard a better overall sailing experience.

Seldén has been producing furling mast systems for over 30 years, all of them coming with manual, hydraulic or electric drive options. The company says upgrading to carbon is the next logical step, to offer cruising sailors the same performance benefits as racing sailors.

“Larger boats with small crews call for smart sail handling and we are constantly pushing our product development in that direction,” says Seldén’s CEO, Peter Rönnbäck. “The benefits of carbon fibre masts have been appreciated by racing sailors for decades so why wouldn’t a cruising sailor be offered the same deal?”

For owners who might be looking to upgrade, or yacht builders who would like to offer a carbon furling mast option, Seldén says it’s an easy transition. Whether a yacht has an aluminium or carbon conventional slab reef rig or a furling mast, the same deck ring can be used, reducing costs for both parts and labour.

All Seldén’s carbon masts, both furling and conventional, are manufactured at its facility in Gosport using its unique computer-controlled mandrel filament winding technique.