Foilstate

Mast flex sucks. I used the kujira 1440 on the alu mast and was shocked by the flex. So I did some measurements of mast stiffness inspired from @wakethief to see if it could be quantified, and it does reflect the feeling in the water!
I used similar wingspan front wings (~80cm) and mast lengths (70 to 75cm) to perform the test, with a bonus test on the kujira 1440. A 30 pounds load is applied vertically for bending and horizontally for twisting, and the flex is measued in cm.
The gong setup is the stiffest, in the water it really feels like one piece, I wish every foil could have that direct feeling. Signature is also fairly stiff, feels okay in the water.
The takuma aluminum setup is too bendy in my opinion. With short wing span, on glassy days, it’s okay. But on bigger wingspan, and/or choppy days, the setup becomes almost unusable. The wingspan of the kujira 1440 makes a giant lever on the mast and makes it bend way too much. The result is that when you initiate a turn, you feel the mast bending first, and after some waiting the tip starts to react. And sometimes the push is not enough and you end up just going straight instead of turning, you have just bent the mast temporarily.
Currently searching for a stiff takuma mast option, to be continued!