Boom retention line

F

fferm

New Member
Hi

A couple of weeks ago I bought a clew hook, so that I could easily undo the sail from the boom while docking. This is great because it takes away the power of the sail instantly and makes the boat much easier to handle.

It does, however, present another problem. When I undo the sail from the boom, there is nothing holding the boom to the mast except the friction in the gooseneck. Therefore I've had occasions when the boom falls off during mooring, which is a bit annoying. Of course it is tied to the mast with the vang and outhaul, but those lines are long enough for the boom to fall into the water

To get rid of this problem, I am playing with the idea of a boom retention line, i e a line that holds the boom to the mast. One way to do this would be to tie a line around the mast, lead it backwards and attach it to the forward main sheet block attachment on the boom. Shock-cords might be good here...

So I have two questions to the community:
- Does anybody have any insights or ideas on how to do this?
- Would a solution like this be legal according to the rules?

/ Fredrik
 
fferm said:
It does, however, present another problem. When I undo the sail from the boom, there is nothing holding the boom to the mast except the friction in the gooseneck. Therefore I've had occasions when the boom falls off during mooring, which is a bit annoying. Of course it is tied to the mast with the vang and outhaul, but those lines are long enough for the boom to fall into the water
Click to expand...

I don't understand. Are you saying that the boom falls off the gooseneck, or that the aft end of the boom falls in the water? If you put plenty of vang on after releasing the clew, the boom won't fall off of the mast or into the water. BTW, during mooring? How long do you leave the boat in the water? A Laser isn't designed to be left in the water for long, such as overnight.
 
If its to keep the mast on the gooseneck once the clew is undone from the boom, I'd also be interested. On our RS we drilled a hole in the top of the boom and into the gooseneck pin, then popped in a split pin( tied to a little line.

Is some form of retainer like this class legal?
 
As for the legality.... "anything not mandatory is forbidden!" well.. not quite, but unless the rules specifically provide for it, it is forbidden.
 
I don't understand why it is necessary or desirable for the boom to stay on the mast after taking the sail off. I just pull the boom off and lay it on the deck. This takes approximately 2 seconds, and adds no complication to the system.

Whitfit
 
That may work but in IMHO on windy days if you undo the clew to quickly depower at the bank the boom can easily fall to the deck and then into the water - then you are scrambling round the boat trying to retrieve it. Even if you do lift it off and place on the deck it tends to slide off (along with the daggerboard). Sure practice makes perfect but I'd be interested to see if anyone has come up with a simple solution.
 
I find you can just pull the kicker/vang on all the way, take out all the slack and that holds it on just fine, also stops it getting tangled for next time.

I dont think the rules allow anything sort of extra line otherwise it could be used for holding the boom out downwind etc like on a solo
 
Stuff the end of the boom under the traveller, just make sure your boom end stopper isn't worn or you'll lose gelcoat.
 
Thank you all for your responses.... It seems that I have to clarify what I mean.

What I want to do is to undo the sail from the boom to depower the boat and then not have to worry about doing anything else in order to secure the boom to the mast. The reason for this is that when I come to my dock, I depower the sail to make the boat behave nicely, but I usually have my hands full with other stuff, like holding the boat at the dock... So any solution that secures the boom to the mast without any extra effort would be nice.

But as Chris123 points out, this is probably illegal...

/ Fredrik
 
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