Saturday, October 2, 2010

HPL Carbon Boom Head Retrofit

Today I installed a new Boom head to my Hawaiin Pro Line carbon windsurfing boom. You can see the one side of the hinge is bent back. That was the result of a careless rigging effort where the inhaul line was properly seated all the way around the lip. When i went to tighten the clamp, the edge bent. Doh!
This is the second time I've had to do this retrofit, and I'm getting quite good at it.
This is the first HPL boom head I destroyed back in 2008. This one was the result of a forward gone bad.
Got the new hardware yesterday. Thanks Andy
 The trick to getting that pin out of the old style head is to use an electric drill. Once you have the pin pounded out the first inch you grab onto it with the chuck of the drill. It's much easier to PULL it out than to keep trying to pound/PUSH it out (which tends to bend it and cause binding). So long as the drill is set to rotate in "reverse" the jaws stay locked onto the pin as you pull/rotate the pin out with the drill.
The brand new hardware :)
Brand new retrofited boom ready to rock n roll
This HPL boom lives2sail another day ;)

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