Boom Preventer ideas please

FullCircle

FullCircle

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I am bored (like previous post re lazylack system) and want something to brighten my days whilst anchored in a creek. I want a boom preventer system that works with the minimum possible ropes leading back to the cockpit, and will not garotte the unwary on its way through the cockpit. Boat is 23ft fractional so not big. Plenty of room and flat areas to attach stuff to either side and bottom of boom.
Answers much appreciated.


Ta so much


Jim & Lynn

<hr width=100% size=1>Second Chance - First Love. Look for the Yellow Dinghy in Burnham.
 
I have a 22 foot fox terrier - fractional rig - which I sail mostly single handed. A preventer is, therefore, pretty important. When my 6-year old is helming - very important!

My solution does involve leading lines back to the cockppit -but is unobtrusive. I have a small block on each side of the bow, (about 2 feet back) shcakled to the toe-rail A line runs on each side of the boat, from a cam claet on the coach-roof through the block and outside the guard rail, clipping on with a carbine hook to the stanchion level with the cockpit. When going onto a reach, (or before, ideally) I simply attach the carbine hook to the end of the boom, and ease away.

A subsiduary benefit is that, again single handed, this provides a ready to hand bow-line when coming along side!

Hope this helps, Alisdair

<hr width=100% size=1>"so long as all you want is a penguin’s egg"
 
Why not leave a preventer permanently attached to the boom end to save having to sheet in or reach out? I leave a shortish preventer attached to the boom end with a spliced eye in the other end which clips to a bungee and hook attached to the boom end of the kicker. It is a simple matter on any point of sailing to unclip this short length of preventer from the kicker fitting, and clip it to the end of the preventer leading back from the sharp end. Same principle as described by Alisdair, but in my view, easier to set up. If your boom end is easily reached of course, disregard all the above!

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I agree with Goldie - the line and bungee on the boom does work well. If you sail shorthanded and have lines with snap shackles fitted to pull the spinnaker guy down to the side of the boat on the pole side (tweakers ?) then you can unclip the lazy one from the spinnaker sheet and clip to eye in the line on the boom to hold it out.

It's obviously better to pull the boom out from the front of the boat, particularly if on a dead run, but this works ok if the boom does not need to be right out and the boat is just rolling around in a swell.

Dave

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I have a preventer on both sides of the boom- 2 thinnish lines are attached to the boom end, then held coiled at the mast end on each side- they're stopped from flapping around with shock cord. There are snatch blocks on stanchion bases either side forward of the mast.

When I want to use a preventer, I just uncoil the relevant side, run it through the block and back to a mooring cleat at the stern.

I would definately suggest having preventers permanently rigged because this makes them easy to use.

Regards

ALex

<hr width=100% size=1>Life's too short- do it now./forums/images/icons/wink.gif
 
My boat is not quite finished so I haven't tried it yet but........

I will carry a small RIB as a tender on the coachroof which will get in the way of a conventional kicker. Therefore the plan is to have TWO kickers/preventers, one each side, clipped to the toerail. These will have a much better mechanical advantage than a conventional kicker so should only need a double block. They could be brought aft along the toerail to a pulley/jamming cleat arrangement as used on most mainsheets and though on the toerail and outside the cockpit, could be operated from the cockpit. It will of course be one more thing to remember before tacking......

Because of the geometry of this arrangement my hope is that it will also serve as a preventer though in that use of course the mechanical advantage will be less than the more conventional arrangement attached to the end of the boom.

<hr width=100% size=1>I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.....
 
Will both kickers be permamently attached? I can see it being a real pain if you have to change kickers over when you tack. If you leave them permanently attached, wont't you need a lot of rope to go over the RIB and give slack?

I'm sure you've worked it all out, but I'm curious.

Regards

Alex

<hr width=100% size=1>Life's too short- do it now./forums/images/icons/wink.gif
 
seems to me easiest way is the block fitted to toerail ahead of mast with already rigged line back to cockpit + snaplink. Line ready to clip to boom end with eye in end that you use to connect to snaplink. Pull cockpit line in and cleat .... done. If necessary in emergency etc. to let fly - exactly that ... let fly and no problem ......

<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ... and of course Yahoo groups :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/
 
Hope your stanchion bases are strong enough. I attach end of boom line to spin. pole downhaul on foredeck, which already comes back to the cockpit.

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a nice neat system previously suggested uses a climber eight, a piece of metal costing a few pounds which slows down or even stops a rope passing through it

connect it to the boom, then attach a rope to the port toe rail (or also shroud chainplate), thread it through the eight, and lead it to the starboard toe rail or chainplate, where a block can be fixed to send the rope to the cockpit

by varying the tension on the rope you can just slow down the boom movement or even block it




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in it's most simple for it is a rope running from the end of the boom forwards, around some form of block and tied off. The idea is to stop the boom flying across during an unintended gybe. This can be very dangerous, I once saw a fairly large bloke thrown from one side of the cockpit to the other and land in my lap, fortunatly he was only picked up by the main sheet, if the boom had hit his head it doesn't bear thinking about.

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The spin down haul comes to the foot of the mast, so not an option. I suppose it may be worth fitting dedicated deckfittings. I hope they're stong enough. If you set up the preventer properly, there should be no shock loading on it, just static loading. THanks for the advice though, I may have to do a rethink.

Alex

<hr width=100% size=1>Life's too short- do it now./forums/images/icons/wink.gif
 
I use an abseiling 8 as a boom-brake on my 32 footer. It seems to work very well in the conditions I have tested it up to now (about F5). It slides enough when untensioned to allow tacking, but ccan be tensioned on the winch to hold the boom with the wind on the wrong side to a max of about 10 degrees. Thereafter the boom starts to move - but gives enough time to react at the helm.

I've never tried a "proper" boom brake, so cannot draw final judgement yet. And maybe if you ask me in three weeks I will have a better idea as I going on a sail around Corsica soon where there are often Mistrals at this time of year.

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Alex, I'm not sure yet how it will work best. It may be that both kickers will be attached to their respective toerails at the same time, because of the angles involved I think I should get away with a 2:1 or maybe 3:1 tackle which will mean less rope and less drag than a conventional kicker's 6:1 or thereabouts.

The boat is not intended for tacking round the cans of a weekend but for long-term cruising where you could be on one tack for a week or more...... It is not an ideal system but if you can't use a kicker, what do you do? Any other suggestions gratefully received!

Paul.

<hr width=100% size=1>I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.....
 
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