Kiwifish 30 Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 Does anyone know where I can source a fore beam from? A rigger pointed me to Ulrich and told me to get T6 rated, Ulrich said they only have T5. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NZTiger 16 Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 Nothing but tumbleweed and the whistling sound of the wind on this topic. You probably need to make the topic name "Carnage from broken fore beam.." and then commence your post with "... is what will happen if no one suggests a decent supplier." On a serious note, is it worth starting a topic called, "Suggested suppliers for maintaining/improving 8.5 multis" where us newcomers could get suggestions as to who the "go to" people are for sails, rigging, tramps and the general wizardry for setting up our GBEs and similar? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dambo 44 Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 On a serious note, is it worth starting a topic called, "Suggested suppliers for maintaining/improving 8.5 multis" where us newcomers could get suggestions as to who the "go to" people are for sails, rigging, tramps and the general wizardry for setting up our GBEs and similar? I like this suggestion. I replaced my forward beam a year ago with whatever Urlich had - I recall they only had 1 that fitted/was the correct diameter. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kiwifish 30 Posted November 10, 2017 Author Share Posted November 10, 2017 Yeh good idea NZTiger the info must be out there somewhere. Maybe this Cat sailing game is one of those dark arts that no one talks about...... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
B00B00 296 Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 Whatever you do make sure you put in a compression tube from the forestay back to the mast. Essentual if you want to really load it up with anything off the prod. Stiffens the whole platform and much easier to do now. I replaced the main beam in mine which was a real ass of a job. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kiwifish 30 Posted January 8, 2018 Author Share Posted January 8, 2018 Sourced a beam from Sparloft industries. Then Me and crew replaced the beam a few weeks ago. Was super easy, kept the boat floating at the beach, slid out the old and in with the new. Looking forward to putting up a bit more sail and having some fun! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dambo 44 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 Well I'm learning slowly... My new-last-year forward beam has cracked with about 50mm left intact. I hadn't sleaved it, which I think is the primary issue. I've asked John/Sparloft for a quote. Bugger, bugger, bugger. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MartinRF 42 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 I had this problem when my Spyder was almost new. We didn't crack the forebeam. We 'only' bent it -- beafed it up and then bent it again. Other Spyders in Europe have broken beams so clearly a weak point with this design. In 1989 I re-engineered the crossbeams from the ground up together with a friend and that was that. /Martin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ScottiE 174 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 Watching the old GBE forebeam use to always scare me when beating upwind in a blow and chop. Doing the same yesterday in the T made me very pleased about the size of the forebeam - very very stiff. Now I just need a bum clean and some decent sails to really make her hum upwind. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dambo 44 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 We put Freedom's old square top main on and have been having quite a bit of fun but we've had a couple of lumpy trips lately and it's been working pretty hard. It is quite alarming the amount of movement in a GBE that's considered 'normal'. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ScottiE 174 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 yup - they all do it - except perhaps Hooters with her sockets but I've never sailed on her. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Clipper 322 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 I was replacing mind proactively ( hadnt seen cracks but had broken back beam) and as i undid the last bolt it buckled in front of my eyes due to seagull striker tension. It was well f&cked and the last sail i had we had been giving it death, nearly hull flying with masthead kite. After that i kept a very close eye in things... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
erice 731 Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 i'd agree it's the lack of sleeving that did it on multis all those wracking loads are at the corners and the strength there needs to be at least double the mid-beam so with alloy beams you can either use a simple section, that's far too strong-heavy in the middle or find a way to get double or triple the strength at the ends any bicycle with pretensions of light weight - high performance uses butted tubing for exactly that reason carbon ones would tend to have 4 - 5x the carbon at the corners than at the middle when capricorn was out we found that after 10? years of thrashing there some minor cracking around the rear beam to float join nothing on the front, presumably as the front beam is twice as thick so spreads the loads better ground off the bog and laid down lots of carbon in all directions, over a much bigger area but yeah, alloy beams that aren't telegraph poles in the middle are going to need to be about twice as strong at the ends somehow sleeving being the obvious solution sure you're getting far better advice from others but you could buy the same beam extrusion and sleeve it with 1mtr? bits of the broken beam that had a correctly sized 1mtr section cut from them the problem would be compressing them down or you could cut these 1mtr sections of the old beam in half to use as half molds, wax the inside, and glass in a few mm of boat cloth 1 mtr long, half-cure with the tubes strapped shut and some blown up wine bags against dry? cloth? forcing the wet cloth to shape, then deflate and remove bags to lay 900mm carbon strips inside that, half-cure again with the bags, lay more 700mm carbon, half-cure 600mm etc try and bake your final mold on a the dash of a closed up car on a hot sunny day, (reaches about about 50C), all day crack them open the next day to remove your glass insulated carbon sleeves, ready for sanding rough, latering in an epoxy, adhesive mix and slipping into new beam ends not going to be quick or pretty but the end result won't be seen and can be as strong as you want it start begging carbon scraps Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Clipper 322 Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Not sure where you found cracks, and apologies if stating the obvious, but you need to ensure the stainless straps do not touch the ali at all or the corrode out real fast. I sleeved my front beam when i did it, prick of a job to get them in there. So when i did my main beam, i got john at sparloft to sleeve for me. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kiwifish 30 Posted February 9, 2018 Author Share Posted February 9, 2018 My fore beam goes into glassed tubes. I had to replace it because the rivets had reacted with the Ali under the seagull striker (they used stainless rivets and also no separation) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MartinRF 42 Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 Re sleeving, here is a summary of work I did to help a Belgian Spyder owner. /Martin Spybeam.pdf Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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