Masts

The vertical strut connecting board to fuselage. One of the show’s earliest deep-tech subjects, mostly around length and stiffness/material.

• Mast length: what the hosts use for different disciplines and why bigger isn’t always better (Ep 4).
• Stiffness and material: alloy vs carbon, regular carbon vs High Modulus (Ep 13), with F-One’s HM carbon masts a recurring reference (Ep 32).
• Connection systems become a late theme: Slingshot’s ONELOCK (Bobby Johnston, Ep 102), Starboard’s Universal Connection System (Tiesda You, Ep 110), and Cabrinha/Mikes Lab connection talk (Ep 125).
• Thinness vs stiffness becomes the 2026 story (Fred Hope, Ep 144): thinner masts (11.8/12mm) glide better but can’t match a thicker mast’s stiffness — carbon turns brittle at the extreme. A Tuttle (“total”) head is 15.95mm, so a mast tapering wider than ~15mm to meet it makes a weak point (Adrian/Axis’s forum point). Slingshot’s Project Drag Tuttle mast uses a titanium collar sanded flush to cut drag; they’re also developing a 17mm mast whose thickness makes it stiffer than any Tuttle-compatible mast can be. Manufacturing QC (holding an exact thickness out of the mould) is decisive.
• Real-world back-to-back (Liam, Ep 144): F-One 12 vs 14mm and Slingshot plate vs Tuttle — the glide gain from a thin mast is most noticeable at low speed / on recovery, and in powerful bumps a 12mm can feel like too much glide.

Ripple additions (batch 2, 2026-07-20)

• Ep 110 (Tiesda You, Starboard): UCS mast redesign — four-bolt saddle mount replacing a two-bolt socket (four-bolt mounts ‘never move’), hidden internal shims for adjustment; carbon construction/modulus grading (FCC foam-core vs solid-core, C400/C600 GPa naming).
• Ep 135 (Jorrit Buurma, Appletree): Appletree’s own adjustable mast-connection project ‘Radix’ shown pre-launch at a trade show, contrasted with Ken Adgate’s home-converted adjustable Tuttle masts.
• Ep 84 (Fred Hope, Slingshot): early OneLock development broke ~50 masts getting the carbon collar geometry right.
• Ep 47 (Julien Salles, F-One): two-mast lineup — HM 14mm (€1,500, outsells despite price) vs standard carbon 16mm (€1,000); mast recall story after a factory layup deviation caught in testing.
• Ep 24 (Mike Raper, North): GeoLock wedge-fit mast-to-fuselage joint transfers load through the joint itself rather than mounting screws; makes the case aluminium masts are underrated (cheaper, more durable, ~500g weight penalty vs carbon).
• Ep 142 (Dave Kalama): argues against Tuttle/‘total’ boxes mainly on adjustability grounds, now favours plate systems now that plate drag/efficiency has closed the gap — a direct counterpoint to Fred Hope’s pro-Tuttle Ep 144 pitch.