Mast Testing

Following their move to a new HQ in South Devon last year, Tushingham were quick to commission a new state of the art mast testing machine. This allows the Design team of Roger Tushingham and Ken Black to quickly measure the IMCS stiffness and curve profile and to embark on a program of research aimed at identifying just exactly what mast bend characteristics are best for a given type of sail.

Tushingham are the only sailmaker to have such a machine ‘in house’ and believe that the information gained will make a significant improvement to the performance of their rigs in years to come. Terms like ‘Constant Curve’ and ‘Flex Top’ have been bandied about for years but what exactly do they mean and what type of bend curve would be best for wave, slalom, race or freeride sails?

Ken Black comments; “We’ve learned a lot since we got this machine last summer, we’ve explored a few dead ends but I’m now pretty confident that we are on track to deliver a significant performance improvement across a range of disciplines” The machine will also be used for quality control and has already allowed the company to insist on tighter manufacturing tolerances. As Roger Tushingham said “ All our manufacturing partners know we’ve got this thing, they certainly can’t pull the wool over our eyes so they’re making sure they deliver what it says on the tin!”

For more details please log onto:  www.tushingham.com