Boom fitting?

[clancy]

I saw this boat in Sea Bright, NJ. It caught my eye because the hull was varnished. It's about a 30' sloop.

What is the hand crank on the end of the boom for?

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d31/inuitsea/P1040338.jpg


Here's a shot of the front of the boom where you can see a worm gear on the under side.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d31/inuitsea/P1040332.jpg

[Mike Keers]

Roller furling. The sail rolls up around the boom as it turns. Useless old tek-nol-gee.

[Figment]

The worm gear at the gooseneck is for roller-boom furling.
The crank at the boom end is more likely an outhaul adjustment.

those look like some damn nice spars, though.

[clancy]

When I saw the boat it was sitting in the slings of a travel lift. I went back the next day to take more shots and it was gone from the marina.

[paladin]

yup to the above...looks like early/mid 60's nicro metal marine hardware stuff...

[rbgarr]

My family had a 1965 Rhodes Swiftsure with those fittings.
Unless they were kept clean and well lubricated they became very hard to operate... and even with the most careful adjustment (and in favorable sea conditions) the roller furling almost always ended up with a very bad looking, wrinkled reef. The tack shackle would create a lump and the rope luff did not lay in that 'bottleneck' at all well. 'Useless' is a well chosen adjective. They went the way of the wire reel halyard winch, which was pretty contemporaneous with them.

[Jay Greer]

Such fittings were made by the Hubbard South Coast Co. in Newport Beach CA. back in the fifties and sixties.
JG

[uncas]

I got one...for tghtening up the foot of the sail when ya put it on.
Of course, mine is bronze...
It isn't for reefing but I suppose you could gury rig it to work.

then again, mine is slightly different...no wooden handle. Has a handle that is set into the boom.. but damn'd close
psss.. it is from the 40's not 50's and 60's"

[Mike Keers]

Since we're talking two different things here, the outhaul and the roller furling, to clarify for others--it's the worm gear at the gooseneck that rolls up the boom; there is or was some sort of handle/crank that fits on the shaft with the small holes. I'd guess the holes might be for a cotter pin, but all the handles I've seen or had just slipped on and off. If the handle is lost, it's for the best, trust me. :D

[uncas]

Looking at this closely, Our old NE38 had a sim system for reefing. And that was back in 64-66. So, I'll go with reefing based on the photos above.
Uncas' boom does not roll.

[Mike Keers]

Personally, I'm curious if the crank on the end is for an outhaul or the roller boom? Is the concensus the handle on the end is probably for an outhaul then? I've never seen the boom roller handle being on the clew end, but I haven't seen everything by a long shot--I've never seen that particular type of outhaul either. It would mean a rod would have to pass alll the way thru the boom up to the gooseneck to the spiral gears so it's unlikely, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway. Ya never know....

[John B]

Its a matched set. The handle on the boom end is an outhaul adjustment.I had them on my boat for 20 years before I took them off, but long before that I did exactly what was done to that boom. IE give up on the roller reefing and screw some cheekblocks on for slab reefing.On mine the handle would flip around and locate into a hole in the end of the boom so it couldn't get caught up.

A quick search...... a pic of my roller gear fittings . You can see all the outhaul mechanism.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid180/p8445bd5867f9af953db315eb57e8e3f0/f3073212.jpg

[Mike Keers]

John,
Thanx for clarifying that. Seems like quite the elaborate werks just for an outhaul, at least on any modest sized boat. I've had the wire with a small enclosed winch deal, but found I've been happiest with a small tackle, with the clew outhaul line led thru a small block on the boom end fitting if necessary (if the foot is long and leaves little clearance to the end fitting) and the tackle led forward a bit to a cleat.

Now that I think back on my last boat with a furling boom (tho I didn't use it), I believe there were roll pins stuck thru the small holes on the spiral gear shaft at the gooseneck, and the handle had slots that fit over the pins, something like a hand crank for an engine.

[John B]

Yeah thats the handle Mike. I got crunched one day winding it on the leeward side ( why was I that side?.... don't remember).
I'm just a sucker for a well made bronze fitting and I always think I'll re use that outhaul sometime. Its good for a boat where you tend to set and forget because its impossible to adjust while you're going. The boom has to be inboard to reach it and even though its a nice worm drive, it still doesn't have the horsepower of a good tackle system. I made my boom crutch fit into the handle hole ( it had a shaped stud coming off the junction of the two arms)so I had a nice way of dealing with that particular issue at that stage.