I won the award for most spetacular crash during the event, and
...also destroyed the hinge on the boom head.
New Boom head on the left, whats left of the old on the right
See that pin, lemme tell you it was a bit&h trying to pull that out. I started by tapping a screw driver wit a hammer to drive the pin thru the hinge. I could do no better than what you see here, about an inch or so. It took brute force to just get it this far.
I subsequerntly learned that using a drill in reverese works much better. It's much easier to PULL it out than to keep trying to pound/PUSH it thru (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.
So i took a hack saw and literally cut thru the plastic hinge, so that the pin eventually simply dropped out. Of course you literally destroy the old boom head, but I saw no other way, and there wasn't much that was salvagable from the old one anyway
Here is how the boom looks once you've completely removed the boom head
Nice
Brand new retrofited boom, with new 26 inch harness lines to boot, ready to rock and roll!
Hope this helps anyone out there going thru the same retro-fit
cya in the straps!
Live2sail
4 comments:
I get dinged plenty holding on to the boom during botched forwards (all of my forwards are botched...haven't come close yet.) And I'm sporting my own mighty shoulder bruise (the wife hates it.)
Meanwhile you must have caught some serious air during that 30-35 mph day! Now we sit patiently waiting for the next noreaster.
File it down or cut (hacksaw) a few thread off the bolt.
I had to do this with a Maui Sails boom head too. You don't want your inhaul to fail at an inopportune time.
Hey George,
Glad you're enjoying the new boom head. The trick to getting that pin out of the old style head is to use an electric drill. Once you had the pin pounded out the first inch you could've grabbed 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. This trick has worked flawlessly for me. Maybe your blog readers will benefit from this information.
And those nuts on the new head need red Loctite (red is the waterproof type) or they may work loose.
Sail on!
Bob A.
My favorite pic is the fixed boom on the kitchen counter with the fruit and veggie bowls in the background!
Great post! : )
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