Q1 - do you take the pressure off your (gassed) kicker when leaving the boat?

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peter2407

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I recently went for the annual bollocking from SWMBE by taking various lines of the boat to wash in a machine and then soak in patio magic. Tomorrow i hope/intend to replace the lines and then start the process again. One of the lines is the mainsheet which i normally centre and pull down quite hard. My boat does not have a topping lift. I noticed that free of the mainsheet, the mainsail could very easily be scandalised to reduce drive if i let both the mainsheet and the kicker off in their entirety as the boom angle was say 30 degrees. The additional benefit is the rain water would drain more readily. I would still centre the boom by bringing two lines to tie off points on the boat.

What am i missing? What do you do?

TIA
 
Having had two gas struts fail I would never leave my boat's heavy boom supported on the strut. I have now had stainless springs made by a specialist company to replace the gas struts in my vang. When I leave the boat I pull the boom up so that the springs are not compressed. The boom end is tied off to strong points on the port and starboard quarters so that it cannot swing about.
 
peter2407 said:
I recently went for the annual bollocking from SWMBE by taking various lines of the boat to wash in a machine and then soak in patio magic. Tomorrow i hope/intend to replace the lines and then start the process again. One of the lines is the mainsheet which i normally centre and pull down quite hard. My boat does not have a topping lift. I noticed that free of the mainsheet, the mainsail could very easily be scandalised to reduce drive if i let both the mainsheet and the kicker off in their entirety as the boom angle was say 30 degrees. The additional benefit is the rain water would drain more readily. I would still centre the boom by bringing two lines to tie off points on the boat.

What am i missing? What do you do?

TIA
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We tension the mainsheet against the topping lift and tie the boom off to the backstay as well. The gas strut is somewhat compressed then. I don't see how it can cause it to fail - the struts on my estate car are always compressed unless the rear door or bonnet are open? Mounting them the wrong way up inside the strut is said to spoil the seal on the other hand.
 
I don't know what caused mine to fail. There were originally two 1100 newton struts inside my Sparcraft vang, both had lost pressure so that the vang was providing little force. I replaced them with a single 2200 newton strut made of stainless steel. It lasted about two years, then one day I noticed a little oil on the deck behind the mast after a sail. The boom was raised after sailing to provide more clearance. Shortly afterwards the vang gave way causing the boom to drop suddenly. Fortunately the topping lift arrested the fall. I put the topping lift onto a winch to control things and let the boom down and found that the vang compressed fully with no resistance whatsoever from the gas strut. That was what decided me to replace the gas strut with springs calculated to balance the weight of the boom and sail at a normal angle.

Gas struts need to be installed one way up (rod down) so that the seals remain wetted by the small quantity of oil that accompanies the compressed gas inside them. They may fail quickly if installed upside down, and I suspect that the fairly low angle to horizontal at which they are installed in a vang may contribute to failure. This website explains matters, requiring gas struts to be installed within 60 degrees of vertical. On my vang the angle with the boom pulled down is probably less than that. http://www.indgassprings.com/mounting-instructions.html
 
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