Save-A-Boat - The Forum for Plastic Classic Rebuilds!

Okay, tell me what to do.

Should I buy a new boom or rework the one I have.

I want to install a rigid vang, add a bail or tab for hooking up a preventer, and add a new mainsheet bail. I need to repair the corroded end fitting with the broken screws in it, add rope clutches for the reefing lines, rework the outhaul fitting/system, and probably do something with the gooseneck fitting.

Up to the point where I want a rigid vang I thought I could rebuild the original Triton boom but with the rigid vang am I going to wish I had taken the final step and gone with an all new boom? After reworking the boom am I someday going to wish for a new boom anyway?

What the boat wants, the boat gets... and all that associated dogma of course :-)

-Britton

Oh, and maybe switch to a loose footed main while I am at it...

Why not?

-B.

The big problem for me, which in the end forced my hand and caused me to choose a new boom, was the gooseneck fitting when using a rigid vang. The gooseneck must be fixed for this installation, and in my case that overstressed the rotten old aluminum fittings and all attempts at repair or basic reworking.

The custom toggle needed to adapt my particular boom to a new, custom, fixed gooseneck mast fitting, coupled with the other problems, made it hardly sensible to do anything but go for the whole new spar. Painful, yes, but worth it in the end.

You have enough to do there that it sounds like by the time you add up all the bits and pieces and cob them together on your existing boom, you're probably well on your way to the cost of an all-new spar, which would be stronger, better adaptable to modern technologies like rigid vangs, loose-foot mains, and jiffy reefing.

However, you can certainly adapt your old boom for much less than the cost of new. What do you want out of it in the end?

Those old Triton booms are nothing special--lightweight, thin-walled, and small of section given the length of the mainsail foot. They are really not up to task when attempting to trim and control a modern sail using all the controls that we like these days. Mine definitely took on a reverse curve, with the high point above the rigid vang point, when I had the sail strapped in tight and the vang tensioned (and even when the vang was not tensioned, thanks to the springs inside). Would it have eventually broken here? It seems likely, though it never happened.

I sure like my new boom, but I'm just as sure I can't tell you what you should do!

My main is loose footed...I like it.

I'm sure Britton won't mind if I take the thread off on a tangent.

What's the big deal with "converting" to a loosefooted main? My main has a heavy roped foot, intended to ride "captured" in the boom groove. I prefer to rig it loosefooted for reefing purposes, so I do. No modification to the sail, no modification to the boom.

Have I missed part of the equation?

Figment wrote:Have I missed part of the equation?

No, not really, though a lot depends on how the sail was made in the first place.

A sail that had a "shelf" built in to its foot originally would be a poor choice to simply start using loose-footed; the foot would never fly right without the foot rope being installed in the boom groove.

A flat sail with no shelf could be used as is, but flown loose-footed, with no trouble.

Depending, once again, on the original sail, the tack and clew might require additional reinforcement to accept the increased loading of only two points, rather than a full foot attachment through the boom groove.

I think a brand-new sail built with a loose foot in mind would be cut slightly differently at the bottom, but that's not to say that existing sails can't be used with no modification.

It is, however, an important consideration that a loose foot main does put more strain on the boom ends than a sail run through a groove; having the sail in the groove also helps, to some extent, support the boom section itself, by spreading the load. This is why converting to loose foot, coupled with an end-sheeting sail and rigid vang, can be so detrimental, structure-wise, to one of these old Triton booms. It was the so-called "conversion" to loose-foot on my boat that really highlighted the boom problems, once the boom lost the support of the full foot.

I sure like my new boom, but I'm just as sure I can't tell you what you should do!

Why not? You got me into this mess in the first place!

I took off my sorry excuse of a vang on the last few days of my cruise this summer and I really noticed the difference. I think I could have lived without a vang before I knew better but now I am hooked. If a vang is going to bend my boom then I guess a new boom is the only sensible option. My memory of this summer is fading but doesn't Nathan have a Garhauer vang? Does Dasein's boom bend too?

After a year of working on my boat I have finally learned that sometimes the best result is obtained by simply going out and buying something shiny. I should have just bought a Hinckley and gone sailing... but then again I probably would have wanted to tweak that too.

-Britton

bcooke wrote:My memory of this summer is fading but doesn't Nathan have a Garhauer vang? Does Dasein's boom bend too?

Too much Laphroiag.

No, I don't have a rigid vang (donations accepted); no I don't have a problem with bendy boom. But I only have a floppy 4-part vang that doesn't apply much pressure in the grand scheme.

Nothing wrong with a puny little 4part vang!!!

Work it like a dinghy. Use the mainsheet to get the sail shape you want, then just snug the vang to hold that sail tension, and then ease the sheet to let the boom swing out to the proper angle of attack.

See, these are the things you don't get to pick up when you learn to sail on a 70-footer. ;)

Too much Laphroiag

Oooooo..... that must be A LOT!

I guess since you first put me onto Garhauer vangs I thought you had one. You will have to forgive me. The shiny new paint job was blinding me.

-Britton

Figment wrote:See, these are the things you don't get to pick up when you learn to sail on a 70-footer. ;)

Yeah, its a good thing I learned on a little 56-footer!

I wasn't indicating that I couldn't get a decent shape into my sail, just that it didn't have the power to turn the boom into a banana like the 20:1 rigid Garhauer vang!

bcooke wrote:

I sure like my new boom, but I'm just as sure I can't tell you what you should do!

Why not? You got me into this mess in the first place!

OK, then, fine. Buy the new boom. That's an order.

If I'm gonna be blamed for everything, then I might as well make it worth my while! hehe

Tim wrote:If I'm gonna be blamed for everything, then I might as well make it worth my while! hehe

Getting kickbacks from Metal Mast now?