white boom

mehlig

New Member
Can one tell the age of a boom from the fact that it is white? I sailed in 10 m/s
today and needed to put a lot of vang on (6:1 system). The boom curved
considerably (but it did not bend permanently). How can I tell whether
it has a sleeve installed?
Yours Bernhard
 
How can I tell whether it has a sleeve installed?

The official rules state:
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18. BOOM
(a) A metal sleeve supplied by the builder of maximum length 900 mm may be fixed inside the boom. The sleeve shall not extend aft of the point 1220 mm from the front end of the boom (including plug).
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Based on the above measurements (and assuming your boom has a sleeve installed following the rules) the front edge of the sleeve will be aprox. 320mm from the outside edge of the gooseneck end cap. So get a piece of sturdy wire, mark off 320mm on it and insert it through the gooseneck hole in the end cap aiming it at the lower side of the boom. At aprox. 320mm in you should feel a ridge, which will be the boom sleeve.
 
Zoophyte has it. You can also determine how long the sleeve is using the same method, you just need to use a longer piece of wire and mark it appropriately. Note: you need to bend the tip over, coat hangers work well. The original sleeves were only something like 400mm long, but the new sleeves are significantly longer and since their introductions, very few booms have broken.
 
what year did they start to put the sleeve in the boom?

I have an old boom that I am going to upgrade this winter with new blocks and end plugs and the plastic thing for the outhaul. I am also going to get rid of that thing in the middle that grabs my PFD or my toupee as I tack.
 
Can one tell the age of a boom from the fact that it is white? I sailed in 10 m/s
today and needed to put a lot of vang on (6:1 system). The boom curved
considerably (but it did not bend permanently). How can I tell whether
it has a sleeve installed?
Yours Bernhard

I have owned an original white painted top section of the mast. All I know, it was "builder supplied" (PSE/UK) and class legal and made in the end of the 80ties. I bet, the boom you own, is from that same modell-series. The sleeve for the boom not has been used before beginning of the 90ties. I would say, from this:THe builder not has installed inside the sleeve. It is easy to find out if ther is a sleeve inside:

Take a piece of bamboo stick and put it into the boom, using the hole for the gooseneck. if you rub with the sick to the internal survace, you perhaps realize a sort of withstood/step of the beginning of the sleeve and later a sort of step ~ in the mid of the boom at the inner surface. In this cases a sleeve is installed, in all another cases not. This sleeves are "sold out" in Europe. Perhaps you make your own one or buy at USA. I would say this boom is well "for recreational sailing" in medium winds, but not for active racing any longer. Thats why I sold the white top section to a recreational sailed boat at my club.

Hope that helps

LooserLu
 
Thank you all. I pried with a piece of metal wire, no sleeve it seems.
This is annoying because I bought the boom new (at slightly reduced price)
a few months ago. It must have sat in the shop for decades.
I should have asked whether it has a sleeve or not.

Yours Bernhard
 
what year did they start to put the sleeve in the boom?.

I'm pretty sure that the sleeves were being fitted prior to 1985, they were definitely present by mid 1986. but they were the shorter (710mm) sleeves as opposed to the current 900mm long sleeves, that change came in about 1997.
 
When I restored my 74, I ordered a sleeve and was surprised to find the shorter one already inside the boom....I removed it and installed the new one since I had it and had to justify the purchase of my fine Harbor Freight pneumatic rivet gun!

I doubt the previous owner(s)? had installed the shorter one ...but I can't be sure that the boom was not replaced at some point.
 
Thanks. I tried once more, more carefully, with a wire from a coat hanger.
I felt a step, but at 15cm from the outside edge of the gooseneck end cap.
Not at the expected 30cm.

This could be the sleeve, but my wire wasn't long enough to check the other end.
I'll check when I go sailing (hopefully tomorrow).

I bought the boom as an original Laser part, it has the Laser sticker on.

Yours Bernhard
 
If your in that much doubt whether a sleeve is present or not, try this. Hold the boom by the gooseneck end and tilt the boom end cap to the light. You should be able to see everything inside boom down to the heads of pop rivets. Oh and apply spectacles to face if required.
 
Some further info that may be useful:

Dont bother with wire or sticks or w/e. A tape measure will usually slip inside the goosneck plug. Feed in enough to reach beyond where a sleeve is located and then slide forward till it catches on the end. Now you know how far back it extends and if its within measurement. Poke it back in and take measurement from front of sleeve and you have the other important measurement. From that if you wanted to you can calculate sleeve length.
 

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