Retired from newspapers and television, currently sailing Thelonious II, a 1984 Ericson 381.
Video:
The connection of the boom to the mast--the gooseneck--is subject to compression and to forces on both axes, yet is frequently taken for granted. It's subject to failure, a jury rig is a challenge, and even professional repair is problematic. On older boats especially, the humble gooseneck is often asked to do more than it was designed for, and I have a theory about why.
Here is the break that developed in mine: a typical failure of the ear of the aluminum casting after 32 years of service.
I took the casting to Findlay's Machine Shop in West Los Angeles, where the owner, Keith, shook his head. The shape presented to him nothing to machine or connect a repair component to. He sent me to Aero Welding, in Culver City.
Dave, the experienced welder there, agreed to try build up the ear with weldment. He did, but wasn't satisfied with the result. "Aluminum is porous, and it takes up salt water and corrosion. It kept sputtering, and I just don't like the way it came out. It's not going to be strong, and the other ear isn't in very good shape, either."
I called Buzz Ballenger at Ballenger Spars on the California central coast. Ballenger is famously helpful, but wasn't encouraging. "These goosenecks weren't designed very well to begin with," he said. "But send some pictures and dimensions and I'll take a look."
I took another look myself, and just couldn't see a viable repair. That meant Rig-Rite, which has replacements for Kenyon spars and lists many original parts on its Web site.
The boom on the '84 Ericson 381 is the popular Kenyon Spars 3756 section, which was also the factory choice on the Ericson 34, Alden 44, Cabo Rico 38, Cal 35, Hans Christian 38, Tartan 41 and scores of other yachts. The part I needed is "Internal Gooseneck Casting Only: K-10340M."
Rig-Rite didn't return my message but answered the phone after only two more calls:
"K-10340M? Oh, that's back ordered. Check again this spring."
Good thing we're not leaving for somewhere tomorrow. I recalled forum member Sven, who got to Mexico from San Diego on his E38 before his gooseneck broke--hundreds of miles from any boatyard. I've had gooseneck issues on several boats over the years, and its unlikely that the part is on a shelf anywhere. I considered wood, because I once had a broken cast-aluminum mast step and a wood shop copied the old one in oak. After five years sitting in salt water I think it was stronger than the day I installed it. But the gooseneck contains two reef sheaves and the outhaul, and is fairly complex.
Dave-the-welder's fill of the broken ear, even though it didn't meet his standards, offered a temporary solution. I put the part in a drill press, bored a hole, and ground down the weldment to fit the stainless toggle/tack assembly with its reef hooks. Painted with Rustoleum spray and reinstalled, it looked OK. But "OK" isn't what you want in a gale, so I determined to order the replacement Rig-Rite gooseneck casting for a mere $700.
A Better Idea came from Russ Hunziker, a newly retired aerospace engineer. He observed that the two gooseneck through-bolts for reef sheaves offered a good mount for reinforcement plates that could sister the existing, but weakened, gooseneck eyes. We could leave the eyes in place, just put the strain on different material.
I made some templates out of cardboard, and refined them in plywood. Russ wanted the templates accurate--the holes for the (longer) bolts should be snug. And the pin through mast fitting needed to be snug, too, in order the transfer the forces from the old aluminum to the sisters. I had Dave at Aero welding copy my plywood in quarter-inch stainless.
Inventors get naming rights, of course, and when the steel "Hunziker plates" were finished, Russell was on hand to supervise installation. He requested a team of five technicians, a sterile environment and lubrication with alcohol only (oil is forbidden in zero-G, he explained). I handed him a wooden-handled hammer as it started to rain. The tolerances were indeed close, by my standards, and it took us a while to grind the aluminum and set the plates flat, then pound the new bolts through. The spacers for the reef sheaves mean there is very little aluminum-stainless contact, but what there is we buttered with Tef-Gel.
The sistered eyes are far stronger than the original casting ever was. Cost of manufacture: $90. I kept in touch with Buzz at Ballenger Spars during this process, and he has done repairs in similar fashion. Starting over, I might turn over the whole job to him.
So--why did the original gooseneck break?
Well, 32 years in a salt environment--and throw in some neglect, too. When I took ownership of this boat, the tack pin was half out and on the delivery to my home port we pounded it back in with a hammer. I subsequently found the mast plate machine screws loose and tightened everything up, but the damage may have been done.
My theory is that our stock goosenecks are being overstressed by modern rigging practice.
In the 1970s, when Kenyon and Ericson were churning these boats out, lines were not typically led back to the cockpit. It was common to rig the main sheet in the cockpit, or at the end of the boom, where it put relatively little strain on the gooseneck. Many boats were sold without boom vangs, which were considered optional. Reef lines were cleated on the boom, or held by reef cogs. They're out of style now, as are reef winches on the boom. Neither added any strain to the gooseneck.
But nowadays, with our controls led to the cockpit, consider the downward vectors a gooseneck has to handle: a main sheet and reef lines, both often winched to hundreds of pounds of tension; a vang that makes strong compression as well as downward force. Outhaul and topping lift that add yet another pull-down component.
All of the strain goes on those two cast-aluminum ears. I doubt the designer of the original gooseneck would approve.
Allow me to point out something in the picture above. On reassembly, I added two washers under the pin in the tack fitting. Previously there was binding of the fitting at the top, where the angled cutaway in the stainless fitting met the top flange of the mast fitting. That binding must've put added force on the ears, since the swing on the vertical axis wasn't smooth. It may have contributed to the weakening of the ears.
What can we do about our original goosenecks? Inspect, monitor and be aware. They don't like being taken for granted.
Update 2022:
One of the original ears of the gooseneck had broken off, and was welded back on (not secure, however). The ears remained to act as spacers between the Hunziger plates.
When the welded-on ear corroded off again after five years, I sawed off both ears and inserted stainless spacers ("standoffs") from Mc Master-Carr, 5/8ths x 3/4 with ID for 3/8th bolt.
Came out neat and secure, with no longer any need for the fender washers.
...
......
The connection of the boom to the mast--the gooseneck--is subject to compression and to forces on both axes, yet is frequently taken for granted. It's subject to failure, a jury rig is a challenge, and even professional repair is problematic. On older boats especially, the humble gooseneck is often asked to do more than it was designed for, and I have a theory about why.
Here is the break that developed in mine: a typical failure of the ear of the aluminum casting after 32 years of service.
I took the casting to Findlay's Machine Shop in West Los Angeles, where the owner, Keith, shook his head. The shape presented to him nothing to machine or connect a repair component to. He sent me to Aero Welding, in Culver City.
Dave, the experienced welder there, agreed to try build up the ear with weldment. He did, but wasn't satisfied with the result. "Aluminum is porous, and it takes up salt water and corrosion. It kept sputtering, and I just don't like the way it came out. It's not going to be strong, and the other ear isn't in very good shape, either."
I called Buzz Ballenger at Ballenger Spars on the California central coast. Ballenger is famously helpful, but wasn't encouraging. "These goosenecks weren't designed very well to begin with," he said. "But send some pictures and dimensions and I'll take a look."
I took another look myself, and just couldn't see a viable repair. That meant Rig-Rite, which has replacements for Kenyon spars and lists many original parts on its Web site.
The boom on the '84 Ericson 381 is the popular Kenyon Spars 3756 section, which was also the factory choice on the Ericson 34, Alden 44, Cabo Rico 38, Cal 35, Hans Christian 38, Tartan 41 and scores of other yachts. The part I needed is "Internal Gooseneck Casting Only: K-10340M."
Rig-Rite didn't return my message but answered the phone after only two more calls:
"K-10340M? Oh, that's back ordered. Check again this spring."
Good thing we're not leaving for somewhere tomorrow. I recalled forum member Sven, who got to Mexico from San Diego on his E38 before his gooseneck broke--hundreds of miles from any boatyard. I've had gooseneck issues on several boats over the years, and its unlikely that the part is on a shelf anywhere. I considered wood, because I once had a broken cast-aluminum mast step and a wood shop copied the old one in oak. After five years sitting in salt water I think it was stronger than the day I installed it. But the gooseneck contains two reef sheaves and the outhaul, and is fairly complex.
Dave-the-welder's fill of the broken ear, even though it didn't meet his standards, offered a temporary solution. I put the part in a drill press, bored a hole, and ground down the weldment to fit the stainless toggle/tack assembly with its reef hooks. Painted with Rustoleum spray and reinstalled, it looked OK. But "OK" isn't what you want in a gale, so I determined to order the replacement Rig-Rite gooseneck casting for a mere $700.
A Better Idea came from Russ Hunziker, a newly retired aerospace engineer. He observed that the two gooseneck through-bolts for reef sheaves offered a good mount for reinforcement plates that could sister the existing, but weakened, gooseneck eyes. We could leave the eyes in place, just put the strain on different material.
I made some templates out of cardboard, and refined them in plywood. Russ wanted the templates accurate--the holes for the (longer) bolts should be snug. And the pin through mast fitting needed to be snug, too, in order the transfer the forces from the old aluminum to the sisters. I had Dave at Aero welding copy my plywood in quarter-inch stainless.
Inventors get naming rights, of course, and when the steel "Hunziker plates" were finished, Russell was on hand to supervise installation. He requested a team of five technicians, a sterile environment and lubrication with alcohol only (oil is forbidden in zero-G, he explained). I handed him a wooden-handled hammer as it started to rain. The tolerances were indeed close, by my standards, and it took us a while to grind the aluminum and set the plates flat, then pound the new bolts through. The spacers for the reef sheaves mean there is very little aluminum-stainless contact, but what there is we buttered with Tef-Gel.
The sistered eyes are far stronger than the original casting ever was. Cost of manufacture: $90. I kept in touch with Buzz at Ballenger Spars during this process, and he has done repairs in similar fashion. Starting over, I might turn over the whole job to him.
So--why did the original gooseneck break?
Well, 32 years in a salt environment--and throw in some neglect, too. When I took ownership of this boat, the tack pin was half out and on the delivery to my home port we pounded it back in with a hammer. I subsequently found the mast plate machine screws loose and tightened everything up, but the damage may have been done.
My theory is that our stock goosenecks are being overstressed by modern rigging practice.
In the 1970s, when Kenyon and Ericson were churning these boats out, lines were not typically led back to the cockpit. It was common to rig the main sheet in the cockpit, or at the end of the boom, where it put relatively little strain on the gooseneck. Many boats were sold without boom vangs, which were considered optional. Reef lines were cleated on the boom, or held by reef cogs. They're out of style now, as are reef winches on the boom. Neither added any strain to the gooseneck.
But nowadays, with our controls led to the cockpit, consider the downward vectors a gooseneck has to handle: a main sheet and reef lines, both often winched to hundreds of pounds of tension; a vang that makes strong compression as well as downward force. Outhaul and topping lift that add yet another pull-down component.
All of the strain goes on those two cast-aluminum ears. I doubt the designer of the original gooseneck would approve.
Allow me to point out something in the picture above. On reassembly, I added two washers under the pin in the tack fitting. Previously there was binding of the fitting at the top, where the angled cutaway in the stainless fitting met the top flange of the mast fitting. That binding must've put added force on the ears, since the swing on the vertical axis wasn't smooth. It may have contributed to the weakening of the ears.
What can we do about our original goosenecks? Inspect, monitor and be aware. They don't like being taken for granted.
Update 2022:
One of the original ears of the gooseneck had broken off, and was welded back on (not secure, however). The ears remained to act as spacers between the Hunziger plates.
When the welded-on ear corroded off again after five years, I sawed off both ears and inserted stainless spacers ("standoffs") from Mc Master-Carr, 5/8ths x 3/4 with ID for 3/8th bolt.
Came out neat and secure, with no longer any need for the fender washers.
