Com-Pac parts availability

[passagesfromtheheart]

I'm not on Facebook, but for those who are — wondering if there have been any rumblings on the Com-Pac FB pages about where/when we'll learn about Com-Pac parts being available (what's left of them, at least) again?

Btw, speaking of FB:

I have deactivated my FB acct for several months/years, off and on, since 2009 when I was essentially coerced into opening acct in order to "see" a friend's pictures. I went to "reactivate" my FB acct a couple of weeks to list my 23 on the FB Marketplace and FB wouldn't let me post my ad for my boat until I uploaded a copy of my "photo ID/state identification" (my driver's license) to prove my identity! Uhhhh...no thank you!

They have all kinds of info about me; surely there must have been an alternative method for me to prove my identity to them?

And I also read horror stories, online, about people who did upload their state-issued photo ID to FB, but FB STILL would not allow them back into their acct.

[bruce]

On parts, not Facebook, I know a PC owner who had a damaged 3/4" universal in his boom gooseneck. Dwyer Mast, who Com-Pac used for the catboat spars and fittings, and probably for their other boats as well, used to have a great website and for complex parts, such as a gooseneck, would have parts diagrams showing the individual parts that you could order specifically. These days, their website isn't as detailed. It wasn't clear if they wanted to get out of selling the parts separately or not.

He called Dwyer, and they were able to sell him just the part he needed. Not as easy as before, but Dwyer is still servicing their products well.

[brackish]

I notice the change with Dwyer, and the elimination of parts diagrams. Used those often for myself and to direct others to specific parts they were looking for. 

With Compac I'll really miss their service.  I remember doing the "ten year refurb" on my 23 and could buy directly the tape kit to replace the waterline and rubrail stripes along with the logo and arrow at a better price than trying to buy/make those items from other sources.  Also got all manner of things like nut covers during that refurb.  I've never seen the mast step anywhere else, hope if I ever need it the Dwyer will work on the Compac.  I've also bought teak parts from them, and although I'm a well equipped woodworker, finding the teak is expensive and difficult for me but not for them.

[bruce]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I've been working with a former Picnic Cat owner looking to get another PC, and he had questions about the boom gooseneck on a boat he was looking at. I sent him off to Dwyer with the part number in hand, and he came back with "that as of 4/1/26, Dwyer was no longer selling parts directly, and that their parent company, Zim Sailing, was offering parts support for select one design models only." Read it and weep:
https://dwyermast.com

It's interesting to note who Dwyer had provided parts for in the past. Com-Pac is listed first, along with other well-known brands. When you go the Zim website, the list one designs they plan to support is quite limited, and, for the most part, small dinghies. ILCA is Laser, and ISCA is Sunfish.
https://zimsailing.com/boats/club-420/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=9839812075&gbraid=0AAAAADqAqpOkDwb7FK0RvF_igGk5GLsff&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwuvOyvDlkwMVo01HAR0W1SyXEAAYASAAEgLI9_D_BwE

Looking at the Dwyer website again, under Products they list Legacy Catalog (not our Legacy unfortunately). Under Parts BY Boat and Parts you can see boats they've supported previously, and the extrusions they had available, respectively. Click on those and crickets, but at least we have a sense of what boats to target if we have to reverse engineer this thing and find who might have, or know of substitute parts, that will fit our boats.

In the past, Dwyer had nice little dimensioned cross sections of their extrusions, so could see what extrusion you might have, and what fittings might fit, if the specific extrusion wasn't referenced. No mention on the Zim website of the extrusions they are selling. They may decide that they shouldn't just walk away and abandon all of these potential sales, but we'll have to see.

Meanwhile, the O'day Javelin may use the DM-275 (1.75" x 2.75") as a boom, as do the Picnic Cat and Sun Cats, and a gooseneck, cast end caps, slide, and universal are available from drmarine.com. Verify of course, if not it might well be another Dwyer extrusion.

[brackish]

Ouch!!  That is too bad.  But understandable.  ComPac is not making any new boats so they are not a customer, nor Precision which used their stuff, and how many more?

I wonder who has the porthole extrusion dies or if they have been scrapped.

[bruce]

I don't know about the dies. The prospective PC owner I was talking to did ask about remaining old stock, but didn't hear back.

I doubt anyone will see this as a business opportunity, so the dies won't be worth much. I wouldn't throw them out, but them I wouldn't blow off all of my previous customers, regardless of what the new owners wanted.

Listing the applications their extrusions were used in, or at least providing dimensions for comparison to possibly compatible products, wouldn't cost them anything and would provide some relief. It's not like I'm going to buy a Sunfish (or Optimist, Laser, etc.) to replace a family cruiser. Been there, done that.

I'd heard that Catalina Yachts had paused production, after a recent purchase. Tough times for legacy brands.

[brackish]

I agree, I don't think any extrusion operator will want to store the dies unless financially motivated to do so.  They had to be low volume even with multiple models by multiple boat builders using the same section.  Sections using porthole dies are slow running, usually water cooled because of the alloys used and require a plug for stretching even though stretching is minimal. The dies are much larger from a storage standpoint.  Setup to run ratio had to be bad given the probable volume.

Hey, pretty good memory of my extrusion work experience back in the late sixties.

The lesson here is take care of your mast and boom, the other hardware can probably be adapted by custom machining if needed.

[bruce]

I'm going to post this here for now, not sure where it would best reside.

Attached is a PDF of Picnic Cat spars and their cross sections. In the listing of catboat spars (provide by Dwyer previously) note that the Sun Cat also uses the D-275 for its boom and the DM-1 for its gaff as well. Also note the DM-375 is used as the mast on the Sun Cat and as a boom on the Horizon Cat.

Picnic Cat: Mast DM-284, boom DM-275, gaff DM-1
Sun Cat: Mast DM-375, boom DM-275, gaff DM-1
Horizon Cat: Mast DM-450, boom DM-375, gaff DM-2

Looking at the PDF, it seems that at least in some instances Dwyer used the largest dimension in naming their spar. The DM-275 is 2.75" deep, the DM-284 is 2.84" deep. I would expect that the DM-375 is 3.75" deep, similarly with the DM-450. This may help in identifying a spar extrusion.

As posted above, the O'day Javelin may use the DM-275 as its boom, and D&R Marine lists it, and associated fittings, as available. Of course, they may not actually have stock on hand, and we don't know if Dwyer will still provide it to them.

[bruce]

Thanks, brackish, our messages crossed.

With the current focus on CNC, have you heard of any new CNC machining techniques that lend themselves to hollow mast construction for these low-volume applications? Wasting away solid stock, after you've provided longitudinal access for a cutter to work the interior, seems highly wasteful. 3-D printing with polymers could work I suppose, but I won't be the first one to try that out! Bending and welding could work, I suppose.

Meanwhile, how many Optimist, Sunfish, etc. masts do they sell a year.

[brackish]

No I can't think of a better or least costly method than extrusion, but I've been out of manufacturing for a while. When I talk about the cost of running a porthole die I'm comparing to a standard extrusion die, i.e. one that runs extrusions that are not a complete tube. Those dies are a couple of inches thick and the diameter of the press ram.  A porthole can be a couple of feet long with channels that direct material around an id plug and through an od face plate. I suppose you could run a standard die to the shape less sail slide tube and weld it in, but that would cost more and control of the heat affected zone and warping would be a nightmare.  As costly as it might be because of low volume, extruding with a porthole die still gets the strongest and lightest part with the least material used and because everything heats up and cools down at the same rate, it stays dimensionally accurate.

What we can hope for is that there are salvage yards that will stock masts and booms. 

[passagesfromtheheart]

Thanks, everyone, for all of the info you've shared -- I've said it before and I'll say it again -- I'm so grateful for this community!