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new at sailing

roy9216

Junior Member
just bought a 1977 ericson 27 from a 80 year old man .
and he told me the boom is held up by the main sail and that it
nothing to the top of ths mast . Is this true? And I cant tell by the manual
drawings.Wish i could see the top of a mast


thanks in advance for any help
roy9216,:confused:
 

HughHarv

Hugh
Boom Support

Some boats have a boom topping lift (a line or cable from the masthead to end of boom) to support the mast when the sail is not up. Some boats don't have this as it is not necessary with lighter booms, however you can rig a line. It can be adjustable or not. I got tired of the boom falling on my head so I used a small line tied off to a convenient item at the masthead and the boom on a 20 foot boat. Worked fine.
 

agraziano23

Member II
I have a '76 E27 and definitely there is a wire main topping lift. The wire is somewhat short so that the last few feet are a line and tackle system to manually adjust it. I addition there is a shot wire hanging from the rear shroud to attach the mast to when not sailing.
 

Shamwari

Please Contact Admin.
27

My 27 never had a lift - it just had a short section of wire from the backstay with a clip on it and the boom was attached to it for support when the sail wasn't being used.

Shamwari
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
just bought a 1977 ericson 27 from a 80 year old man
and he told me the boom is held up by the main sail and that it
nothing to the top of ths mast . Is this true? And I cant tell by the manual
drawings.Wish i could see the top of a mast

Hmmm.... By 1977 I thought that most boats of that size and sophistication had a boom topping lift. This would be either a wire from a shackle at the rear of the mast head down to a short tackle about two feet above the boom OR a line from the rear of the mast head to a small swivel block at the end of the boom and then led forward on the boom to a small horn cleat.
Either way does two good things and one bad thing. Good things are holding the boom up when the sail is stowed, and letting you raise/set the height of the boom to keep shape in the main in light air -- especially off the wind. Bad thing is having that topping lift wire/line waving around and occasionally snagging on a batten pocket.

(The short pennant seized to the backstay is something you see on lighter smaller-spar trailer sailors. Our first boat, the Ranger 20, had such a pennant to hold up the boom after we launched, and we always had to remember to remove it the moment we got the main up.) :rolleyes:

My next boat was a 26 footer with a topping lift with tackle, and I added a bungy cord retractor to the lower part to keep some tension on it and try to keep it from getting into fights with the battens. (If I knew then what I knew later I would have changed over to a solid vang -- in a heart beat.)
The current boat came with a solid vang, and this holds up the boom or furling, reefing, etc.

Next point -- older boats in the 60's and early 70's often had sliding goosenecks and when you swigged the halyard tight, the sail did indeed "hold the boom up" ... and then those boats had a small tackle to pull that gooseneck down to tension the luff of the main. The fixed-gooseneck soon became a standard, partly to forstall cheating on sail area during racing, and partly to simplify/standardize sail plans.

As usual, wherever I got it wrong, wiser Vikings will chime in and correct.
;)

Best,
Loren
 

Mark F

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
Welcome Roy,

You should be able to add a topping lift but you will have to get to the top of the mast to do it. Another option is to add a rigid vang or a BoomKicker. That takes care of the boom dropping when the main is lowered and also gives you some light air sail trim. If you search on-line for BoomKicker you should be able to find some good info. Here is a photo of my E27 with a BoomKicker installed.
 

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toddbrsd

Ex-Viking, Now Native American
I have a '76 E27 and definitely there is a wire main topping lift. The wire is somewhat short so that the last few feet are a line and tackle system to manually adjust it. I addition there is a shot wire hanging from the rear shroud to attach the mast to when not sailing.

agraziano23,

I have the same set up as you. I just don't understand why there is a need for both the topping lift and "wire hanging from the rear shroud", unless the topping lift was added later. Seems like there is no need for both.

Todd
1976 E-27
 
Topping Lift on E-27

My E-27 is a 1973. I got it in 1976. It has a vinyl-coated wire topping lift that's adjustable at the bottom, at the boom. As I have rigged it, it's slack when the main is hoisted, but it is short enough so that the boom doesn't come down into the cockpit when the main is dropped. As to the short wire with the hook on it, that supports the boom and hold it in place when the main is down, flaked on the boom and the sail cover is on. We call it a "pigtale." It takes the strain off the topping lift

I don't know if you guys heard about this, but there was an Ericson skipper who came into an up-scale yacht club bar and went right by a drop dead gorgeous woman, didn't notice her and sat on a bar stool right next to her. He started looking at his watch.
The woman, not used to being totally ignored, said, "Is your date late?"
The Ericson skipper, noticing her for the first time, said, "Oh, hi. No, my date isn't late. I was just admiring this new watch I just bought. It's very special."
"What's so special about it?" asked the woman.
"It emits alpha waves and talks to me telepathically," said the Ericson skipper.
"What's it telling you right now?" asked the gorgeous woman.
"It is telling me you're not wearing any panties," said the sailor.
"Well, skipper, your watch must be broken, because I AM wearing panties, the woman said, smiling.
The Ericson skipper taps his watch a couple of times, looks up at the lady and says, "Damn! It must be an hour fast."

Have fun out there...

Morgan Stinemetz
 

roy9216

Junior Member
great joke and thanks to

everyone for all the info .At last I will have help when I need it .Thank you all so much and good sailing to all.




Roy9216
Vermilion Ohio
Spitzer Lakeside Marina
Lake Erie:)
 

Mark F

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
Roy, regarding your private message;

Thanks, you can see more photos by going to the Community tab above, then Pictures & Albums, next look for "Lotus Flower". Also snoop around in the other albums there you will find some wonderful photos.
 
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