Boom Cleanup Gone Wrong

[KS Dave]

Inspired by my fellow sailors with Kenyon spars who performed maintenance on both their gooseneck and outhaul ends, I decided I would at a minimum, try to remove my somewhat worn center sheave on my outhaul end to have a new sheave to convert to line from wire (since I'm having a few other sheaves made by Zephyr). Inspired also by Loren's work on his boom.

I heeded the warning about tapping the correct end of the gnurled pin, and using penetrating oil; it seemed to start making progress. I failed on the "first, do no harm" point. I'm not sure what happened next, but something slipped on the vise and couple of whacks before I realized it, one of the ears was fully cracked. GAH!

While things are bent, the sheaves do all spin freely enough. The ear broke the rest of the way quite easily. I was able to take some files and my Dremel to it and grind down all the rough and sharp edges (this was just before that, but you get the idea).



My question, fellow sailors. With how this boom is rigged, is having this ear with this large pin in place vital? It seems it only serves to keep the adjustable backhaul wire forward of the end of the boom? I'm not sure.



I'm regretting even deciding I should try and do this - they weren't really that bad. I have an email out to Josh at SailBoatParts to see if he has any, but I fear any I would get from him would have sheaves more greatly deterioriated than mine and my money might be better spent limping along with this and saving up for a rigid vang. I'm certainly not going to attempt RigRite.

Thoughts appreciated.

 

[Afrakes]

Take it to a welder and get it fixed. I have a brand-new Boom Kicker, still in the box, I purchased for a former boat. Let me know if you're interested.

 

[KS Dave]

Take it to a welder and get it fixed.

I think the sheaves would interfere with any efforts to do so. I decided to stop trying to get them out lest I completely destroy it. The aluminum is now bent enough that the axle pin might be locked in place. Bonehead move on my part.

I have a brand-new Boom Kicker, still in the box, I purchased for a former boat. Let me know if you're interested.

I am interested - I'll send you a private message.

 

[Christian Williams]

I ground both those ears off Thelonious and never looked back. They serve no function I can see.

 

[KS Dave]

I ground both those ears off Thelonious and never looked back. They serve no function I can see.

Thank you, Christian!

 

[bigd14]

They serve no function I can see.

Those ears conveniently hold a pin to attach a halyard to when not in use. It can also hold the tail end of a topping lift if one were rigged up to the masthead and back to the cockpit for adjustment instead of being fixed at the masthead and adjusted at the forward end of the boom. Agree with Christian that it’s not a big deal if you can smooth them out and all sheaves spin as they should.

 

[KS Dave]

Those ears conveniently hold a pin to attach a halyard to when not in use.

Arguably, still usable for this with one ear. I attach mine to a cleat on one of my stays. But a good thought!

It can also hold the tail end of a topping lift if one were rigged up to the masthead and back to the cockpit for adjustment instead of being fixed at the masthead and adjusted at the forward end of the boom.

Ah-ha! That makes sense and was probably the original design intent.

Agree with Christian that it’s not a big deal if you can smooth them out and all sheaves spin as they should.

They spin well enough for my frequency of use.

Thanks for your comments!

 

[Christian Williams]

I secure the halyard on a cleat on the stay a few feet from the stacked headboard. I have never understood walking the main halyard to the end of the boom to secure it. The halyard shackle is on and off frequently, when flaking sail at the dock, or when raising or lowering. When disconnecting the halyard shackle, when something else needs to be done at the mast base, what do people do--just let the halyard hang in the wind? Oh dear.

But then, the world is full of mysteries, and such procedures evolve through personal evolution.

 

[KS Dave]

I secure the halyard on a cleat on the stay a few feet from the stacked headboard.

My boat came with this already on one of the stays. In addition to clipping shackles on the ring, also useful to tie off the flag halyard.

 

[bsangs]

I secure the halyard on a cleat on the stay a few feet from the stacked headboard. I have never understood walking the main halyard to the end of the boom to secure it. The halyard shackle is on and off frequently, when flaking sail at the dock, or when raising or lowering. When disconnecting the halyard shackle, when something else needs to be done at the mast base, what do people do--just let the halyard hang in the wind? Oh dear.

But then, the world is full of mysteries, and such procedures evolve through personal evolution.

Allow me to play devil's advocate here, as I'm a walk-it-to-the-end-of-the-boom guy. With a lazy jacks integrated sail bag, there's no flaking to worry about. Drop the main into the bag, remove the halyard, walk it to the back, then zip up the bag. The process is easily reversed, as when I unzip the bag, it walks me directly back to the halyard. It's out of the way, acts as a topping lift backup, doesn't bang on the mast. I have five other halyards to deal with at the mast (two for the sail bag, three for spinnakers and what not, and the genoa) that take up effort and real estate in the battle against mast banging.

 

[bigd14]

I would never leave the halyard swinging in the breeze (on purpose). I worry about losing it every time I touch it! On my 30+ I would just wrap the halyard around the sail stack pack just aft of the mast and clip it to itself so I didn’t have to walk it back. The PO of my 34 placed a shackle on those ears and clipped the halyard to that. Not sure if I will keep that arrangement or figure something else out but I don’t really fancy walking the halyard all the way back there. I like the shroud cleat idea.

 

[KS Dave]

A bonus of the shroud cleat is that because of it's location, it reduces the clanging of the halyard against the mast.