Well, my previous boat (51 LOA, 45 LOD full keeled monohull) had a
homemade staysail boom (not a Hoyt) we referred to as "The Widow Maker".
It attached to the deck on a stainless steel tripod about three feet
off the deck, was made of wood, about several feet long and very heavy.
We tried using it but it made being on the foredeck a dangerous
proposition.

The final straw for us occurred early one morning while motoring (no
sails) out of Puerto Escondito. We had just cleared the harbor and
were heading into a rough sea when the acorn nut that held the boom's
hinge to the tripod came undone. This probably wouldn't have been a big
deal except that the staysail uphaul was tied to foremost portion of the
boom, while an auxiliary uphaul had been casually tied to the boom's aft
most portion.

This created a perfect pendulum/battering ram effect, with the jib boom
swinging fore and aft along the entire length of the boat from a point
up high on the mast. With each roll of the boat the boom would come
flying past us, swing out past the aft of the boat a bit and then come
flying back the other way. This while my friend and I tried to grab it
as it went by before it hit something or killed someone. Eventually we
both stood on the dog house, ran forward and jumped onto it, tackling it
as it went forward, dragging us up to the bow and scaring the hell out
of everyone on board.

Good times, good times. We don't have that boom any more.


Gordon wrote:
Anyone care to comment on a jib boom such a Hoyt? Anyone using one?
Gordon

I wouldn't be blaming jib booms generically for this murphy.

How did you like it before it went berserk?

Terry K wrote:
I wouldn't be blaming jib booms generically for this murphy.

How did you like it before it went berserk?


Well, it made handling the jib much easy from the cockpit, and in theory
was a great idea, but I think the implementation was lacking. I'd have
preferred a light aluminum boom, and some kind of furler mechanism
instead. Came with the boat.

I left it on for a while but decided the dangers it imposed on the
foredeck outweighed the benefits it provided.