Know Your Boom

While in Fremantle, we also found and fixed a problem we didn’t know we had. Our boom is carbon fiber and hollow. The main outhaul goes into the boom about a fourth the way back from the mast. Three-fourths the way back there is a cross-member inside the boom to support reefing lines. At the end of the boom there are two rollers to guide the outhaul line up and out to a clear, handy place to attach to the sail. It would make sense to run the line straight back and clear to the rollers. Unfortunately we found that the line had been run OVER the cross member, from which it had to cut sharply down to meet the first roller. So as the sail worked, the Spectra rope sawed into the cross member and the cross member sawed into the Spectra line. The line is now reversed and cleared and no great damage to the cross member.