Typhoon boom question

[Kevin Kaldenbach]

Where should my boom be on my Typhoon, above or below the gate? If it is below the gate, is there something that keeps the sail from falling out of the gate when lowering it? I was told by the PO that the sail is 14 inches shorter then standard so maybe if the sail was the proper size it would be obvious. But its not.

Kevin

[Jeff D]

Kevin,

My boom is below the slot. I use a track stop below and above the slot to keep the boom down and the sail up respectively.

Jeff

[Sea Hunt]

Hello Kevin:

I am a true tadpole, but here is how mine is set up and it seems to work very well.

The gooseneck/boom are positioned below the gate. I purchased a slide stop at West Marine to keep the gooseneck from popping up and out of the gate.

http://www.westmarine.com/1/1/1606-flat ... ments.html

I have a second slide stop affixed just above the gate. This keeps the sail slides from sliding down and out the gate.

Credit where credit is due. I used to just have two (2) long screws affixed above and below the gate. Mike ("mgphl52") former owner of a beautiful CD 28 (S/V Kayla) directed me to these simple and effective slide stops. But for Mike I never would have known they existed.

I believe I purchased the round slide stop (mfg #2350).

I cannot address the issue of your mainsail being 14" shorter than standard.

Hope this helps. The pros on this board will hopefully correct any mistakes I made in this post.

[mgphl52]

Hi Kevin,

On my prior Ty's, I used two sail stops, one above the gate when the sail is on and a second below the goose neck to hold up the boom when the sail is lowered. (A small cleat low on the mast can be used as a down haul to keep the luff tensioned). The second stop also came in handy as a spare when I was reefing and drop the other one overboard...

-michael

[wingreen]

I use a short downhaul to tie the gooseneck below the gate. Of course, my sail is sized so that is possible. Even if the sail is short, and the gooseneck wants to position itself above the gate, I would still use a downhaul to secure it.

[Appleton68]

On my Weekender the boom is below the gate when the sail is up and above the gate when the boat is on the mooring. As indicated the use of a sailstop is essential in either location.

[TY375]

I executed an idea that I picked up from this board ages ago on mine, a cover for the gate on the mast to keep the sail lugs from falling out. They're fashioned out of an aluminum carpet strip, so they're somewhat bent to the curvature of the mast. They are the vertical height of the gate and the width of the carpet strip, with a small tang top and bottom to cover the rounded portion of the gate where it tapers back to the slot. There's one for each side of the mast and they're fastened with stainless machine screws threaded into the mast. I take them off at the beginning of the season to get the sail on and at the end to get it off, otherwise they stay put. That allows the sail to flake down to the boom wherever the boom happens to be when I lower the sail. I also use a stop above and below the boom gooseneck - below to keep the boom from falling onto the cabin top when the sail is lowered and above to tension the sail.

[ronkberg]

TY375, please add a photo. I do not know what an aluminum carpet strip is and can only imagine the strip used to hold down wall-to-wall carpeting. However that is made of "spikey" hooks. I guess you must have a piece of aluminum fitted as a cap over the slot and held in place with ss screws. I like the idea but what is and where can I get the aluminum carpet strip?

Thanks, Ron

"They're fashioned out of an aluminum carpet strip, so they're somewhat bent to the curvature of the mast. They are the vertical height of the gate and the width of the carpet strip, with a small tang top and bottom to cover the rounded portion of the gate where it tapers back to the slot. There's one for each side of the mast and they're fastened with stainless machine screws threaded into the mast."

[mgphl52]

The gate-cover idea sounds like it could make quickly reefing problematic

-michael

[TY375]

Sorry, I won't be able to get a picture until spring. Here in Wisconsin we have lots 'o snow & the mast is 100 miles away in Door County, under a bunch of it.

The carpet strip I used is one of those bits that's used to hold down the end of wall to wall carpet at a doorway - imagine a flat piece of stock about an inch and a half wide, a sixteenth of an inch thick, and however long the doorway is wide. If that were screwed to the floor to cover the end of the carpet in the doorway, there would still be a lip to catch your foot on. Now take that flat stock and crease it down the middle, lengthwise, so that the three quarters of an inch or so of the width that's on the smooth floor side bends down towards that smooth floor at, say, a 30 degree angle. That's just enough bend (or was in my case) to fit around the curvature of the mast. Being only sixteenth inch aluminum stock, you can easily clamp your finished piece in a vice and tap it into shape with a hammer. I'm pretty sure I made a cardboard template to work from, but the aluminum cuts very easily with a hack saw for the straight runs and a coping saw for the curves. File it smooth, drill some holes, and you're done. I think I drilled pilot holes through the finished pieces on the bench, then used the finished pieces as jigs to drill pilot holes in the mast. Then I ran a tap through the holes in the mast to recieve the screws and then overdrilled the holes in the finished pieces so the screws wouldn't bind.

As for reefing, no, the covers only fill in the sides of the slot in the mast and don't meet in the middle. That allows the sail slides to go up and down the slot past the gate freely.

I'll be happy to follow up with a photo, but it won't be until April or May. Good luck in the meantime.

[ronkberg]

I can understand what you've done now and I will build one myself for spring installation.

Good luck with the snow. We do get our share up here in Maine also and it just makes us appreciate the few days of summer sailing that us northerners enjoy.

Ron