Hoyt Allen Jib Boom

[Alexis]

hello there,

Would anyone have any experience of sailing a yacht equipped with a Hoyt Allen Jib boom, or has one retrofitted on his yacht?

Cheers, Alexi

 

[William_H]

I don't know of this poarticular jib boom but I have often thyought of fitting a jibboom on my lttle boat.
It requires obviously a jib that is sufficiently short in the foot that it will tack in the fore triangle without fouling the mast.
he jib is often made self tacking without a boom howver just like a mainsail it can be made more controllable with a boom.
The greatest difficulty seems to be to get enough down force on the boom. As in a boom vang or sheet traveller. A sheet traveller will require a track system to cross the foredeck freely enough for light winds. It could be mounted half way from foot to tack.
If you mount the traveller at the mast you might as well try to get away without a boom.
If you can mount the boom high enough off the deck ( or have a conveneient anchor well) then a boom vang would be ideal. ie a tackle to pull the boom down toward the deck by pulling to the tack.
I reckon this woulld need a clearance of at least 25% of the foot length to have effective vang power. Perhaps you could devise a pushing down vang rather than pull down. This would lean on the forestay.
If you can fit a vang then the sheet need only be a tackle from centre line to the boom so the boom can swing from one tack to the other easily. An out haul adjustment would be very usefull for adjusting the flatness of the jib.
Like a main you would probably not often adjust the vang except perhaps down hard in strong winds and beating and looser when running.
It all seems like a way to get a perfectly shaped jib on all points of sail. Why you might even want to fit roller furling. You probably wouldn't need to reef simply cos the jib will be quite small. In fact you maight want to ahve provision for a big genoa or MPS for light wind days.
All very intesting however mostly we only seem to see booms and self tacking on the inner jib of a cutter rig. Lots of waffle here.
Let us know how you get on. Olewill

 

[William_H]

Or were you talkin about a simple pole for poling out the jib? olewill

 

[Alexis]

Dear william,
Thanks a lot for your lecture on jib booms. Sorry, I should have enclosed a link to the Hoyt Jib Boom( http://www.mauriprosailing.com/Forespar/Forespar-Hoyt-Jib-Boom-System.htm ), and also should specified that my yacht (34 feet, cruiser) is currently sporting a big genoa, but the rig has been designed in such a way that I can switch to cutter anytime, should I want to.
This Hoyt Allen Jib boom is installed as standard on the Island Packet range of yachts.

I went on your profile and discover that you'r a marine electronic freak. Maybe you could also help me concercning my other post, concerning log impeller. Posted on the same day?

 

[William_H]

Thanks for the link. The idea of a bent boom is interesting. I would be doubtfull the pivotting point at the deck could provide enough freedom of rotation whille also providing the downward force on the jib clew to be really effective. However the curve upwards may provide more height for a more effective vang.
Note however that the jib foot would have to skirt over the upward bend each time you tacked so you could have tto much of an upward bend.
I note that the Hoyt boom provides only for a very high cut clew on the boom where I would imagine you would want a low cut clew to get more saiil area.
Yes I imagine your 34fter would go well with a cutter rig with the inner jib on a boom but you would find that tacking the outer jib (yankee?) would be difficult in getting the clew out around the inner forestay.
You might consider making the inner forestay removable for light wind conditions although you would have to reconnect as soon as there was any pressure on the big genoa. I am fond of my fractional rig with no inner forestay which makes tacking the jib very easy.
So after all that I hhavn't really given any useful advice but perhaps it gives you something to think about. regards olewill
Did I mention our sailing (racing) season starts tomorrow after a long winter break so we will be right into it again. much excitement.
This will be my 22nd season with average 25 races per season. Hows that for madness?

 

[Amphitrite]

Jib booms are a pain when sailing downwind - and why would you add weight and a clumsy piece of metal to the foredeck? Ich you want self-tacking, then do it the way it is done on the Hanse Yachts, which is still annoying when sailing downwind.