Boomstrut Question

[C08]

Wondering about a Barton Boomstrut and whether having an mast reefing mainsail alters the equation. Boomstruts are sized for the weight of a conventional sail, boom and sailcovercover and I am wondering whether I could manage with a boomstrut specced for a smaller boat. My boat a cat is 8m and I wonder whether a boomstrut specced for up to 7.5m would do the job ok, I suspect it would. . Also as a cat the main area is very conservative compared to a monohull of similar size so the boom may be smaller as well although not sure about that.
I have asked Barton but they seem not to be interested in replying to my query but in the days of increasing numbers of boats with IMRR I would have thought it was an issue they had given consideration to!
Any ideas?

 

[Tranona]

Boats fitted with in mast as standard will also have a boom strut, often a gas strut fitted as standard, so the aftermarket is very limited. Recommendations based on boat length are usually just an educated guess based on what size of mainsail and length of boom is normally fitted to that size of boat. However this can vary by quite a large amount - just think a skinny mainsail IOP rig compared with a more recent fractional rig.

Perhaps in defence, Barton have probably never been asked the question given the small number of boats of your size that have ever been fitted with in mast. Doubt that you would need the next size up as there is little difference in weight between an in mast boom and sail against a conventional rig.

 

[C08]

I got a reply from Barton that confirmed my suspicion that the lower weight of the boom having IMRR would enable me to go down a size from that recommended for an 8m boat, as I was at the lower end of their 7.5 - 9M range anyway. Thanks for giving this some thought!