New top-sections are springy, and resist taking on a permanent bend, but with use they take on a permanent bend more easily. Of course, sticking your Laser upside-down in a shallow mudbank is a sure-fire route to a bent top-section, new or old.
So what constitutes a bent mast? If measurers had to attend meetings with a jig to measure absolute straightness they would have to cart the whole lot around in a van. The human eye, and other senses, can detect really small amounts of bend. Any amount too small to be readily detected won't make a difference on the water, and mast bend is judged by eye.
Note: the author and publisher of this site takes no responsibility for any consequential damage from any advice given on this site. Even a new spar can snap on first use; it can also snap the first time you try to straighten it.
Standard-rig bottom-sections rarely bend (though Jon Emmett reckons they do quite often), but they do break. The good news? They break only rarely, with old age and usually under the considerable stress of a strong wind: Force 5 or above. They usually snap at the rivet-holes for the Y-section tang mounting for the vang. When one does let go on you it's an odd experience: one second you're fully hiked-out, going hell-for-leather on a screaming reach, the next you're sitting in a soap dish wondering where the hell the wind went. Persuade a light-wind sailor into lending you their bottom-section for the afternoon race and go buy a new one on Monday.
Radial bottom-sections do bend. (Sometimes they break, but they generally bend before they break. Can you straighten it? The simple answer is - don't bother trying if it's racing you're after, for there's damn-all you can do about it. Just go out and buy another one for racing, and use the bent one for practice or messing around in a Force 7. I haven't heard of anyone successfully unbending a Radial bottom-section enough for it to be raced, though Steve Cockerill probably has. One problem lies in finding the centre-point of the bend, and in gaining sufficient leverage and strength to be able to un-bend not one but two concentric tubes of aluminium.
Radial bottom-sections are quite likely to be tested for a permanent bend at a regatta. Check yours out before setting out. A bent one is slow downwind anyway, as you lose out on leach-tension.
I have seen Jon Emmett sailing with a Radial bottom section with a fractured outer, and probably reliant on the inner sleeve to keep it in one piece. Rather him than me, even in the Force 1 at Farmoor where he used it!
4.7 rig bottom-sections are pre-bent at the factory, and these are strong enough not to bend (either further or less) under normal use. ('Normal use' should include use by an 80kg sailor having a blast in a Force 7.)
A new top-section is relatively springy and soft. It is therefore likely to be quite resistant to bending in 'normal' conditions, but it will get a permanent bend easily if you capsize your Laser in shallows, or sail in really strong winds. It is easy to straighten at this stage.
With use it will become progressively more brittle, making it more 'powerful'. It will not absorb gusts as well as a new one, but will be more powerful offwind. Age increases the probability that the mast top-section will snap when you try to straighten it, but it is more resistant to bending than a new top-section. It is probably gives its best performeance just before it snaps. Always take a spare top-section with you; you can never tell when one is going to go. I had one snap on me in the dinghy park after a light-wind Torbay Nationals race, when I put pressure on the boom to take the vang off!
Booms acquire a permanent bend over time with the amount of vang tension necessary to sail upwind in strong winds. It is legal to race with a bent boom. There's only one minor drawback: if the middle is lower it will be more difficult to get underneath when you're tacking, especially if you're a Master and don't bend too well yourself.
It's useful to know this if you are in the habit of chartering a Laser and want to keep your deposit.
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