"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
Broke his tiller and then his boom. Otherwise, doing fine.

Don't bother commenting, Neal, it's pretty clear after the posts of the
past couple of days that the yellow boat never made it past the
breakwater.

--
Roger Long


The yellow boat's boom will never break again. Galvanized iron water pipe
(GIP) will bend but it will not break. Unlike aluminum it is not prone to
fatigue and/or stress cracks.

The Good Captain never bothered getting a new extrusion for his boom. The
repair he made using six feet of 2" GIP and two similar lengths of 3/4" GIP
to properly fill the egg-shaped aluminum extrusion turned out better than
his wildest expectations. It is still holding strong and there is no
evidence of rust anywhere in the system. Were there rust it would be
bleeding out of the ends of the aluminum extrusion and it is not. This
despite years and years of sailing in salt water exclusively. This might be
because the boom is sealed at both ends with marine polysulfide flexible
sealant as is the center join where the pipes were inserted and hammered
home. It's a watertight system. Besides that, as a safety precaution the GIP
was liberally sprayed with several coats of zinc chromate and spray
galvanizing inside and out with particular attention paid to the cut ends.

Also, the Good Captain informed me that the bales (2) for the mid-boom
sheeting/traveler are attached with machine screws which are secured to the
2" GIP which was threaded with the appropriate tap. These were also sealed
with marine polysulfide sealant atop blue Loctite. So, the bales pull on the
inner GIP sleeve and there is no real stress on the aluminum extrusion at
all. The six feet of GIP spreads the load. The elliptical shape of the boom
is planned and could be removed by a dolphin striker type cable/turnbuckle
arrangement on the bottom of the boom but the Good Captain's theory that an
elliptical boom would flatten the sail somewhat is indeed the case. This
makes going to weather more efficient. Many modern day racers use an
elliptical boom patterned after the one invented by Capt. Neal and fitted on
"Cuts the Mustard."

It's too bad Zac was not aware of this necessary modification, one of many
that are necessary to turn a coastal cruiser into a world cruiser, as I am
sure the Good Captain would have happily helped poor, hapless Zac get his
boat ready for the rigors of the deep blue sea.

And the poor lad broke his tiller? Bwaaahahahahahahahhahahahah. Stinking,
ornamental, laminated wood tiller the likes of which many yachties think is
seaworthy. NOT. The Good Captain's tiller is an aluminum extrusion shaped
like an I-beam. You couldn't break it if you tried. You could lay it across
a couple saw horses placed at the very ends and then have Bobsprit jump off
a two-story building onto the center of it and it still wouldn't break.

Wilbur Hubbard