I am wondering if there would be much interest in a Footy size gooseneck/vang/boom kit. I have designed this based on a high quality 1" brass turnbuckle. The unit gives a maximum adjustment of 3/8" (9mm) which should be ample at Footy sizes. Weight of the unit without the booms is 3g. This unit will be part of the ‘Siren’ kit which will be launched in late spring with any luck.
The boom ‘cuff’ is a good fit over a 4mm carbon boom as shown and also a 5/32" K&S Aluminium tube boom. A 3/16" dowel boom will easily sand down to fit too. The 3/64" brass wire is left over long so you can bend and cut it to suit your application.
The kit will consist of all that you see in the photo. The 4mm carbon tube booms are cut to;
Main 7.75" (197mm) which gives an assembled length of 8" from the pivot (203mm), Jib 6" (153mm)
Which I think will be long enough for most purposes and custom versions can be cut and supplied of course.
The simple wood standoff will be cyano/epoxied to the mast and bound top and bottom with cyano soaked thread. Instruction sheet will be included.
I will be making some up after my return from England in mid April. I hope this will be of interest,
Graham
Nice looking unit, Graham. I for one will be interested.
One thing that someone building a vang like this wants to keep in mind is that care must be taken to perfectly align the vang and boom pivot points. This means some judicious bending of the cotter pin which serves as the pivot for the turnbuckle.
If you don’t, at some point in the travel there will be some binding (a killer in light air). This is theoretical knowledge–I’ve never built misalignment into one of my rigs. :lol:
–Doug
That is very true Doug and the reason that I will have this on a boat and tested before trying to sell any!
The cotter pin to turnbuckle is a loose fit which I suspect will fudge the issue in practice but a little tweaking of the design will take place to gain a better alignment. Thanks as ever for the feedback.
Graham
Roll on Wood Lake Sheboygan. The Richardson solution is totally different and has theoretical advantages and disadvantages. It will be facinating to see which works better.
He’s using the frictionless German pivots from BMW (“keepsumvonbindin”) along with the weightless fasteners. And probably an adhesiveless glue system.
Doug - it’s only a couple of thousand miles - come to Sheboygan and find out!
:zbeer:
The many designs using resin-soaked wrapping line as a fastening system is, IMO, the most efficient and strongest way to fast a gooseneck. You just need the dexterity or coordination to wrap the line correctly. :sad:
That is, up until you need to remove or repair it during a regatta…
i must agree tomo, even for swing style boom attachments. uni carbon wrapped boom attachments…strong, light, sexy!