Sue Jones sent me a picture of her gooseneck, or her boat's rather. It is of a different kind as mine. The boom has a built in rotating mechanism. A handle (not shown) is to be stuck into the hole in the boom. Inside a mechanism rotates the boom when the handle is turned. A better system as on my boat it seems, but then again it has to work, which Sue's apparently does not. Maybe the mechanism inside is seized.
5 comments:
During the 1970s, my father had two boats that were built by Hurley Marine - a Silhouette MkIII & Hurley 22. Both had this type of roller reefing, which was very quick and easy to use with the separate crank handle inserted. Like your own simpler roller reefing system, the boom drooped at the aft end, and I remember my father inserting a tapered length of wood (thicker at the clew than at the tack) along the boom in order to counteract this, although it never seemed possible to acheive a crease free and properly shaped sail.
I have the same on Scaramouche. I took it apart and cleaned and lubed it,made a crank handle. If I ever get the boat in the water I think it will work ok. Tom
This type of mainsail roller reefing was standard on Hurley boats built around 1960 as were the Alacrity and Silhouette Mk3. When I bought my Silhouette a couple of years ago I was pleased that it had such a system since I sail mainy singlehanded. The theory of simply rolling the main around the boom sounded great but in practice it is takes two persons, one to turn the handle whilst easing the main halyard and the other to control the end of the boom with the topping lift as the weight of the boom is taken off the mainsail leech. Also the resulting reefed sail is very untidy and of poor shape. Personally I prefer a simple slab system with two reefing rows and a system of lines rigged on the boom to haul down the reef tack and clew. With this system I can keep the boom kicker/vang and tack downhaul to control the reefed sail. My record for putting in a single reef alone is 2 minutes. If you have one though, keep it oiled even if not in use or the innards will deteriorate.
I haven't put my mast up yet,but it seems there is a hook on the backstay that should hold the boom up while reefing the main.I'm not really sure.
Iv just got AY 862 with this fitting on the boom all in working order we will have to wait and see if it works. Im about to start a total referb and may start a blog
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