Boom stiffener insert

Chris123

New Member
Is there any way to tell if my old boom has the stiffener sleeve in it, without removing the end caps (they seem to be riveted on) and looking in?
 
I am also interested in knowing this. I am considering the new Vang upgrade and if there is a kit available that will result in a legally stiffer boom it would also result (i am assuming) in a stronger boom that is better able to handle a 15 / 1 vang. Does anyone know in addition to this when such a stiffener would have been supplied with each boat as standard equipment.
 
i think it was standard after 1995. A while ago i was wondering the same thing and the easiet way to find out is to take a hanger and bend it and slide it through the hole in the formard cap and feel along the sides to see if it hits anything. Also i have heard from a freind of mine who owns a performance sailing shop and he said it is a waist of money.
 
I'm about to set up a new vang on a boom I know doesn't have the insert. I'm also going to make up a new boom (using an old snapped top section) and put the stiffener in that one. I can't see the point in doing to an old boom.

Don't worry too much. You only bend booms, not snap them.
 
Chris123 said:
Is there any way to tell if my old boom has the stiffener sleeve in it, without removing the end caps (they seem to be riveted on) and looking in?
Hi Chris,
take a simple Bamboo stick that is long enough and that has a low enough diameter to put it through the hole in the gooseneckplug. Rub the end of the stick at the inner side of the boom between the vang-attachement and the mainsheetblock-eye. If you perceive resistance 2 times then you have already the boomsleeve inside. With that bamboostick-method, you also can measure the lenght and the exact position of the sleeve inside of the boom. The older Laser-booms have a bigger walldiameter than the new ones. You can recognize this by comparing the diameters of original old plugs and the original new plugs (last that have a biger diameter than the old ones).

Another hint:
If the old plug got desroyed (however why), you can put the new plug into the old boom by cooling down the plug for some hours in a ****-refrigarator and heating up the boom end with a hair-fan just before you beat in the frozen plug into the boom with your automotive-rubber-hammer. Attention, the gooseneckplug has stays inside. Be sure, that none of that is in the position where the hole for the rivet is – otherwise you will perhaps have a problem to put that new rivet in...
Looserlu
 
Laser76489 said:
I am also interested in knowing this. I am considering the new Vang upgrade and if there is a kit available that will result in a legally stiffer boom it would also result (i am assuming) in a stronger boom that is better able to handle a 15 / 1 vang. Does anyone know in addition to this when such a stiffener would have been supplied with each boat as standard equipment.

I don't think the new vang really puts any more strain on the boom than the old. In either case you can supervang to the same setting -- with the old vang by sitting on the boom as you pull in the vang; with the new one just by pulling on it. After that, as you pound through the chop & gusts going up the beat, the two look identical from the boom's point of view.

In fact, because it's easier to let it off as you round the weather mark, I'll bet the new vang results in fewer bent booms than the old one.
 
Hmm... 1974 Boom + 15:1 boom vang cranked on = SNAP :(


It got windy one day and I cranked on my vang, snap. Just do the thing with the coat hanger, and if you don't have the insert, just use the vang carefuly ;)
 

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