Lots of these rigid vangs break, compared to rope vangs
which are more reliable, obviously. As OZ stated booms often
break right at the vang attachment point. This is a weak point
because of the leverage, as CM stated.

Nevertheless, a rigid vang could be used to support a boom
for hauling a person out of the water. I would not call a man
overboard, a heavy load. Many vangs feature a lock, as Doug
stated, to bypass the internal spring. From what I've read, this
is one of the failure points, along with the mast and boom
attachments flanges.

If a sail is hoisted, so that some or all boom lifting is provided by the
sail, the load at the end of the boom could be increased, probably
to the point where the vang could be disabled completely. The sail
would serve to carry the load normally carried by the topping lift.

For any kind of heavy load a sail, halyard, or topping lift is the
way to go. On larger boats with beefier systems, a rigid vang
should be robust enough to lift some substantial loads. However,
would you want to risk breaking it, if a wire topping lift was available?

"DSK" wrote
wrote:
Apparently you think the term "rigid vang" means essentially a solid,
steel
pipe. It doesn't mean that at all. A Rigid vang "telescopes" and has
springs
inside it.

All the ones I've seen also have locks.


...(stupid BS snipped) ...
I'm not surprised you don't know this. Maybe if you were other than an
armchair
wannabe sailor...

Maybe if you sailed anything other than a cheap old beater, maybe if you
had some experience with other than obsolete gear, maybe if you hung
around sailors who know how to sail and how to rig their boats properly,
you'd know that solid vangs have locks.

DSK