Ericson 25 Gooseneck attachment

[Adventure4Me]

I'm a bit embarrassed to post what may seem a simple question, but I have questions on how the gooseneck should be properly(or improperly!) attached to the mast while sailing.
Some backstory: I acquired an Ericson 25 (1973 model, I think), in the spring of 2022, for the cost of hauling it out of a lady's driveway, where it had been housing wildlife and sinking into the pavement for over a decade. She advised me that it had spent the previous decade sinking into a farmer's field before her then young son brought it home. The trailer was bent, broken and stripped, and the boat was missing hatches, hardware and much of what was left was broken. I had been looking for a boat like this for several years, and felt that this was the one that I wanted to sail. I've been able to recreate or repair most of the damage and have had it out on a nearby mountain lake several times this year. (I must say: it's an excellent performer, as I suspected it would be!)
I've only been on a few sailboats and don't have any close by to take reference notes off of, but have re-rigged the majority of the system. One thing that puzzles me is the gooseneck attachment to the mast. The swivelling gooseneck that is attached to the boom has two holes at the bottom and the mast has a braced eye strap near the lower end that I've been pinning to the gooseneck. It's worked for raising the mast, but holds the boom in a very low position on the mast. Besides not allowing the mainsail to take it's optimum shape, it bunches up the sheet and blocks to the traveler. It seems to me that there should be some sort of fixment to hold the boom up as high as the painted mark on the mast and not allow it to slide up or down when under sail. It would need to be secure, as it's critical to keep the boom and gooseneck from sliding out of the slot especially when raising the mast. I've spent hours googling the web and while there's some really detailed and informative pages out there, I haven't been able to find what I'm looking for. Does anyone have a picture of how this is attached? An obvious option for me would be to fabricate an aluminum bar to pin to the gooseneck and the other end to the eye strap on the mast. Is this a bad idea? Is there a dissadvantage to having the boom at a fixed height while sailing?
Thanks for any and all illuminations on this matter.
Gerald LaPointe
British Columbia

 

[gabriel]

I drew this chicken scratch for a friend with a similar question. The gooseneck slides freely. Must have a topping lift installed. If the boom needs to be held up, for instance when lowering the sail, use a slide stop.




it’s the way I do it.

 

[G Kiba]

I know this issue and understand how a Google search might not show you what you want. My old E27 had this very problem. If your E25 is similar, you can use sail stops in the mast groove to keep the boom from moving up and down. Put one above and below the boom. Better yet. I fashioned my own sail stop that held a lot better than what you can buy. I bought a 1/2 diameter aluminum rod (dowel), cut a length of 1.5. Drilled and tapped (I think 10-24 thread) 2 holes, in-line and perpendicular to the axis of the rod. Slide the rod into the mast groove and use 2 screws with washers to lock the stop in position to hold up the boom.
If you use a down haul like Gabriel shows, you don't need a stop above the boom. Although my boat had the down haul line attached to the Gooseneck and not the sail. The other end to an eye strap at the base of the mast. Hope this helps.

 

[klb67pgh]

These are from a few years ago before a bottom job and other improvements, but will show you the gooseneck set up on my E25. You have to loosen the sail stop and lower it down to the deck to be able to slide the gooseneck down to the opening in the track to remove or install the gooseneck. I have a topping lift to hold the aft end of the boom up, cleated on the starboard side of the boom. I tie a line on the bottom loop of the gooseneck straight down to an eye on the aft end of the mast step as a downhaul to keep the gooseneck from sliding up under sail (down wind especially). Ignore the extra lines in the second picture - I lash the gooseneck when using the boom to lower the mast. The mainsheet was also rigged backward for mast lowering using the mast winch.

 

[Adventure4Me]

Great info and thanks for the diagram and pictures! I like the idea of using a downhaul line to adjust tension and height on the boom, but also needs some security for the boom not to move while raising the mast. Sail track slugs are a good idea, but are they secure enough to trust while raising the mast? Any movement of a slug could allow the gooseneck to slide in the track and the whole shebang comes crashing down! It's not just the damage to the mast and boat that I'm concerned about: I was on a pal's boat when a rigging failure dropped the mast on my head! You want to believe that I'm doubly careful that what goes up, stays up! Perhaps I use an aluminum bar to securely connect the boom to the mast eye strap at the base and hold it fixed and then use a combination of sail stops and a downhaul line to keep the base of the boom where I want it while under way.

 

[Adventure4Me]

These are from a few years ago before a bottom job and other improvements, but will show you the gooseneck set up on my E25. You have to loosen the sail stop and lower it down to the deck to be able to slide the gooseneck down to the opening in the track to remove or install the gooseneck. I have a topping lift to hold the aft end of the boom up, cleated on the starboard side of the boom. I tie a line on the bottom loop of the gooseneck straight down to an eye on the aft end of the mast step as a downhaul to keep the gooseneck from sliding up under sail (down wind especially). Ignore the extra lines in the second picture - I lash the gooseneck when using the boom to lower the mast. The mainsheet was also rigged backward for mast lowering using the mast winch.

I've got the same eye on the base of the mast. I like your setup. I'm curious about the second forestay that you have showing in your picture. Do you run a spinnaker from it? I also have a roller furler and made up an aluminum bracket that attaches at the bow to allow a quick connecting wire to be attached in front of the furler base or behind it by several inches. I planned this to have added security while raising the mast to the position of being able to pin the furler base(and forward stay) to the chainplate, and also having a clean wire to attach a jib sail should my furler fail(in the back position)and to fly a spinnaker(while in the forward position). I realize that I don't have any pictures of the rig up and I need to take some. It's a busy dock where I've been launching and I'm so excited to go sailing that I haven't been very studiously documenting what I've done! I found a used spinnaker on craiglist quite cheap and in great condition from a t-bird and it seems to do the trick when conditions are good.

 

[gabriel]

Great info and thanks for the diagram and pictures! I like the idea of using a downhaul line to adjust tension and height on the boom, but also needs some security for the boom not to move while raising the mast. Sail track slugs are a good idea, but are they secure enough to trust while raising the mast? Any movement of a slug could allow the gooseneck to slide in the track and the whole shebang comes crashing down! It's not just the damage to the mast and boat that I'm concerned about: I was on a pal's boat when a rigging failure dropped the mast on my head! You want to believe that I'm doubly careful that what goes up, stays up! Perhaps I use an aluminum bar to securely connect the boom to the mast eye strap at the base and hold it fixed and then use a combination of sail stops and a downhaul line to keep the base of the boom where I want it while under way.

I believe the slugs are very secure as it is the camming action of the slug that holds it in place and not the tightening of the nut. I had this same concern when I started this funny business of mast stepping.

I use the slug to keep the boom from sliding down and a tie strap (tied from base of mast where boom bang would attach to loop in gooseneck) to keep it from sliding up.

 

[klb67pgh]

I've got the same eye on the base of the mast. I like your setup. I'm curious about the second forestay that you have showing in your picture. Do you run a spinnaker from it? I also have a roller furler and made up an aluminum bracket that attaches at the bow to allow a quick connecting wire to be attached in front of the furler base or behind it by several inches. I planned this to have added security while raising the mast to the position of being able to pin the furler base(and forward stay) to the chainplate, and also having a clean wire to attach a jib sail should my furler fail(in the back position)and to fly a spinnaker(while in the forward position). I realize that I don't have any pictures of the rig up and I need to take some. It's a busy dock where I've been launching and I'm so excited to go sailing that I haven't been very studiously documenting what I've done! I found a used spinnaker on craiglist quite cheap and in great condition from a t-bird and it seems to do the trick when conditions are good.

In that picture that line is the genoa halyard - I may just have the halyard attached to the furler and then the deck. I probably was preparing to use it to pull some tension forward to pull the furler clevis pin when its time. I do have a halyard for a drifter/spinnaker that runs down to the bow pulpit when not in use. It always stays forward of the furler when not in use. I must not have had it installed then. I furl the genoa first before raising the drifter. I think the halyard would foul in the furler at the top if I stored the tailing end of the drifter halyard back at the mast when not using the drifter and using the genoa. You'll need to consider that based on your description of your other stay.

The sail track stop locks very tightly when I use a set of pliers to turn it, so there isn't risk of it sliding down. I do wrap line around the mast and through the gooseneck several times to tightly lock the gooseneck at the correct point when raising and lowering the mast. My eye strap is down on the mast base, not the mast, so it works to pull tension down when sailing, but is not able to be used in the mast raising or lowering process. Frankly using the mainsheet and mast winch, tension is parallel with the boom and doesn't want to cause the gooseneck to slide, so long as it is set at the proper height.

There is another thread on here on raising the mast on an E-25 that has more useful pics of that process and various set ups.

 

[Adventure4Me]

In that picture that line is the genoa halyard - I may just have the halyard attached to the furler and then the deck. I probably was preparing to use it to pull some tension forward to pull the furler clevis pin when its time. I do have a halyard for a drifter/spinnaker that runs down to the bow pulpit when not in use. It always stays forward of the furler when not in use. I must not have had it installed then. I furl the genoa first before raising the drifter. I think the halyard would foul in the furler at the top if I stored the tailing end of the drifter halyard back at the mast when not using the drifter and using the genoa. You'll need to consider that based on your description of your other stay.

The sail track stop locks very tightly when I use a set of pliers to turn it, so there isn't risk of it sliding down. I do wrap line around the mast and through the gooseneck several times to tightly lock the gooseneck at the correct point when raising and lowering the mast. My eye strap is down on the mast base, not the mast, so it works to pull tension down when sailing, but is not able to be used in the mast raising or lowering process. Frankly using the mainsheet and mast winch, tension is parallel with the boom and doesn't want to cause the gooseneck to slide, so long as it is set at the proper height.

There is another thread on here on raising the mast on an E-25 that has more useful pics of that process and various set ups.

I made a piece of aluminum(about an 1 1/4' thick) that mounts just behind the bow chainplate. with attachment points ahead and behind of the furler base. With my "auxilary stay" clipped to either position, and the tension adjusted appropriately, it seems not to get in the way of the furler. My furler is a combination of Ultrafurl top and bottom, and a CDI flexible luff. I machined some aluminum pieces to match things up. I noted that the top attachment would sometimes drag a bit on the auxilary stay, so I machined a piece of cutting board material and bolted that up there too. It allows easy spinning of the furler mechanism even if it's in contact with the second stay. When I was out last week, I was puffing right along on a close reach with the boat regularly hitting 6.5 miles per hour(gps) and occasionally heeling to 30 degrees. I think this is getting close to the maximum speed of this boat, and it gave me good practice tacking up a fairly narrow lake. I'm quite pleased with the performance and ease of handling so far.
I'll show some pictures of the adapters I made:
The furler top and bottom with a 3' piece of luff for test fitting, the top furler piece with the white plastic anti-snag piece attached(picture's a bit unfocused) and the piece I made for attaching the second stay at the bow(the vertical post is the mast support while travelling)