Failure of 0.51 Cuben

[Jennifer Mitol]

I found that rolling and stuffing my old cuben duomid into a too-small cuben stuff sack really degraded the fabric.  A LOT.

Both the stuff sack (let me take a picture when I get home) and the duomid were really abraded after my CT last summer, and the stuff sack (also from zpacks) was nothing but threads at the opening.  And it was brand new when I started that hike……

[Ben C]

My MLD cuben trailstar came with a loose silnylon bag.  I have notice no wear so far.  Just another point of data.

[Matt Swider]

I was actually thinking of storage between trips more than storage during a trip.  I can imagine that in the bag during a trip might be worse than in the bag during long term storage in terms of abrasion though.

[George H]

The Cuben all those guys are making shelters off is straight up sail cloth? It just happens to be somewhat adaptable for this industry?

How about the hybrid pack material? Marine stuff too?

[Roger Caffin]

The Cuben all those guys are making shelters off is straight up sail cloth? It just happens to be somewhat adaptable for this industry?

Correct. What (very affluent) sailors spend on the boats is orders of magnitude more than you or I could spend on backpacking gear. And when it comes to racing yachts …

How about the hybrid pack material? 

Depends on what you are talking about. X-Pac is made for several markets, including but not limited to outdoors gear. Various Dyneema fabrics are shorter production runs made for the outdoors industry plus some other specialised ones. Jackets for MTB riders is a market – for when they fall off.

Cheers

[George H]

Thanks Roger, for the clarification re Cuben for shelters. Part of the reason, I suppose, that it displays some shortcomings. A tent is not a sail.

When I was involved in yacht racing we took care of the sails to a degree I would never have patience for in the backcountry!

[Roger Caffin]

When I was involved in yacht racing we took care of the sails to a degree I would never have patience for in the backcountry!

Well, yes, but consider the costs. An ordinary Cuban spinnaker or mainsail might cost $4k – $6k, and that is for a small Dragon class yacht for about 4 people. AIRX fabrics are a little cheaper of course, but there is a very large labour cost. What the cost for a larger yacht is … large multipliers.

Anyhow, one can see why the mfrs of such light-weight fabrics give 99% of their attention to the yachting world rather than to us.

Cheers

 

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