I'm interested as to which is the better of the two, does anybody hereabouts have experience of either? The video's on YouTube show the Walder being much more effective in slowing the boom (see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGVgpPuQIuY) than the Wichard (see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUalHbOMuag) but that may just be consequent of the line tension being applied by the operator.
TIA
Rob
I looked at both, decided they were too expensive for what they were. Another poster suggested using a climbers 'figure of eight'. I got one off EBAY-a Petz IIRC-and when it is rigged and tensioned it appears to work fine. For more friction I can add more turns around it and tensioning it with hand pressure only seems enough. Just got to add two cleats and its finished-all for about£45.00!
Interested to hear that - I had a series of discussions with someone on another forum on the same subject about a year ago and he promised to try the idea out since he had the required gear from his days as a climber - but I never heard any progress reports afterwards!
What size boat are you using it on? We came to the conclusion that it might work up to thirty-odd foot, but not much larger with the climbing gear that is readily available.
There's another thread going on this. I've said my bit in that one - in favour of the Walder and boom brakes generally.