"Bart Senior" wrote in message

My friend designed a boom brake and later designed a
hydraulic vang and the boom broke. Now he has a boom
brake and a broke boom!

What brands of rigid vangs do you like?

I'm trying to decide on one, or else I'll make a big rope
boom vang.

A friend with a new Catalina 350 had what I assume was a Garhauer rigid
vang. Sailing with him several weeks ago we bent the thing by
overtightening the mainsheet. Apparently there was not enough compression
allowance in the vang to allow the boom to drop much. So Garhauer sent him
a new vang--a completely different design--with heavy machined aluminum
endpieces and what appears to be a heavier hydraulic piston assembly. Has
anyone seen this unit or had any experience with it? Looks good, but who
knows.

Max