MATERIAL: CARBON VS. ALUMINIUMUpdated a year ago
Carbon booms are 3 to 5 times more expensive than aluminium booms. The reasons for this drastic price difference are the massive difference in the raw material prices and the fact that a carbon boom is 100% custom/hand made.
Since carbon is a much stiffer raw material than aluminium carbon booms offer 4 essential advantages:
When a gust hits your sail you need to pull hard to avoid loosing control. A softer boom bends more the harder you pull. This sideway bend results in the boom to become shorter. When the boom gets shorter the sail becomes fuller/baggy = loss of control.
The longer the boom (180 and up) the more obvious the difference in stiffness becomes.
Carbon booms can be made much lighter (up to 20%) while still offering at least 20% higher stiffness.
With carbon you can go for thinner diameters (up to 4 mm) while still offering at least 20% higher stiffness. In general the thinner the tube diameter the more comfortable it becomes to hold on to. This becomes very obvious once you go back from a thin diameter to a thicker one.
Carbon does not bend. Therefore a carbon boom usually lasts 3-4 times as long as an aluminium boom because any overload (crash, catapult, ..) will eventually result in a bent boom.
Also due to the fact that carbon doesn't corrode a carbon boom requires much less care than an aluminium one. Check the condition of the ropes once in a while and worst case get the grip replaced and a carbon boom will last for years to come.