New Boom

Circe's boom and gooseneck arrangement has been an area of concern to us ever since we first took ownership. There were numerous issues that we wanted to eliminate. When we were in Alameda at Hansen Rigging for the recent new solent stay installation we also ordered a new boom and commissioned them to design and build us a new, upgraded gooseneck arrangement.

The original Kenyon spar always seemed too light for a mid-boom mainsheet. We thought the cam style reefing cleats were flimsy and we saw serious galvanic corrosion where the end cap retaining screws and the vang mount had been assembled  without any corrosion inhibitor. 

We also didn't like the mainsheet routing along the full length of the boom as it was constantly chafing against the vang near the boom mount.

We also thought the gooseneck bracket could be improved. All the pivot holes were badly worn and we didn't like fighting the  sail slugs to use the fixed reefing hooks. Also both the skinny welded aluminium ears on the mast were bent.

We made sure that the job got the best supervision money could buy.... ;-)

Here is the old boom coming off the boat.

The old and the new side by side. The new spar section is a full inch deeper than the original. It will be much stiffer.

The old mast lugs being cut off......

....and the mast being cleaned up. 

(Also visible here on the mast is  the StrongTrack  extrusion. We very "strongly" recommend this, a great improvement for hoisting and dropping the mainsail.)

The new, fabricated gooseneck bracket. Look at those welds, Hansen does top notch work.

The finished boom, ready for paint (Awlgrip).

The new gooseneck bracket installed. The boom mounting ears are now thicker and further apart for more strength, stability and to resist any twisting of the boom.

Everything going back together.

We splashed out for new mainsheet blocks and re-routed it to eliminate the chafing problem on the vang bracket.

To get a cleaner route for the main-sheet we ditched both the boom block closest to the mast and the stand up block on the forward edge of the main cabin. We replaced them with a single block mounted to a small bail anchored in the sail track.

Mainsail going back up.

Finished. Note the two heavy duty Spinlock clutches under the front end of the boom for the reefing lines and the pigtail replacing the reefing hooks. Much more secure and easier to operate than the original set-up. 

Sailing back home to Richmond in 10-12 knots of wind. The new set-up makes it sooooo much easier for Old Matelots to manage the mainsail. 

On to the next project!