There are actually 2 reasons to go with an anodized pole other than appearance. The anodizing is very hard and protects the pole from getting scratched and nicked so easily. It is also very corrosion resistant and the most common reason for anodizing other than appearance. As far as strength goes, I have never heard of it decreasing it and checked with a couple of people that are very familiar with the process and they had not heard of any degradation in strength. In fact they anodize many parts on aircraft to protect them and increase their life. The process adds a coating of aluminum oxide (very hard) that is typically .0001-.0004� thick so it�s hard to imagine how that could weaken the material. However, since the anodizing is so hard it can reduce the fatigue life of parts that see a lot of flexing. While our spinnaker poles do see some flexing they don�t come anywhere near the 100,000�s of cycles needed for this to become an issue.

Russ