Rod Kicker

[g_s_millington]

Thinking of fitting a rod kicker to my 34Ft Van de Stat Legend.
Hovering between a Selden Type 10 and the Barton Boomstrut.
Haveing some difficulty in understanding why so many boats with them still retain their topping lifts.
I would welcome comments.

 

[Strathglass]

The designer of my yacht (Doug Peterson). specifically stated that a rod kicker would introduce additional unaceptable stresses to the mast.
So I will stick to a topping lift.

Iain

 

[ZEBEDEE]

I have a seldon rod kicker fitted and have retained my topping lift. This is due to the fact that the rod kicker is great when you want to put in a reef etc. at sea, but when in port I find that you need something to tension the main sheet against to stop the boom swaying from side to side as the boat rolls, and unless you have a sail stacker system it makes stowing the main a lot easier.

 

[quaelgeist2]

After mounting a rod kicker from Selden, I have retained the topping lift for the rest of the season, lacking appropriate cleats on the mast to fix it there.

I will leave it on, fixed to the mast, as a back up in case of a main halyard failure. I also use my main halyard like a topping lift for additional fixation of the boom when under engine and/or in harbour (it allows more counter pull with the mainsheet)

chris

 

[mldpt]

When my new mast was fitted I had a rodkicker fitted, and seldon insist that the topping lift remain, in fact I am glad they did, firstly the topping lift is a fixed wire from the mast head with a pully block at the end, a rope is then fed through the boom and up around the block and fixed to the outer end of the boom the other end is fed back to the cockpit to a jammer, so to remove it would mean remofing the wire from the top of the mast or attaching it to the foot of the mast. also if you want to put some shape into the sail it is much more positive to fix the boom between the topping lift and the kicker, that way the main sheet has little or no affect on the shape of the main, the only advantage I can see to the rodkicker is it looks great and would prevent the boom from dropping if the topping lift were to break or was too slack the spring in the kicker is not strong enough to hold the sail shape against the main sheet, so if you wish to open the leach for light winds when close hauled simply shorten the topping lift tighten the kicker and haul in the main sheet, with the main sheet traveler over to the windward side and the sail remains full. its also useful as an previous posting said to secure the boom when in the marina, I fix mine amidships tighten the mainsheet down against the pull of the topping lift and it stays there a treat.
Mike

 

[Robin]

We have a Seldon gas kicker and also had one on our previous boat. In both cases we kept the old topping lift (albeit unused) as a reserve halyard. In harbour or under engine without mainsail, the main halyard is attached to the boom end to give something to tension the mainsheet against, also to raise the boom slightly higher than it is with just the kicker. The gas strut should be chosen to match the sail size/weight, in light winds it will then raise the boom provided you can control the boom angle to centreline without needing maximum mainsheet tension (ie on traveller). Rod kickers are excellent for slab reefing systems plus they can double the kicker power which allows better sail control especially with fully battened sails.

We have a Doug Peterson designed Jeanneau Sun Legende 41 which has a lot of miles under the keel with this system including the AZAB (previous owners) without any problems, but she has a substantial mast and boom section. Just don't bend the boom like a bow with the extra power available just because you can.

 

[g_s_millington]

Many thanks for all the usefull comments.

 

[webcraft]

Who is Rod Kicker?

<font color=blue>Nick</font color=blue>
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.bluemoment.com>

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[charles_reed]

aka Gas Strut

or Solid Vang