I picked up a Hunter 260 two winters ago but so far have not had a lot of time to sail it. Having my 1983 Hunter 33 in the water doesn't leave much time for a trailerable. (That and building a new section onto the house in Forked River, NJ.) With the wealth of experience and speciic information I see here I realize there isn't much sense trying to re-invent the wheel myself. Prety much anything I'm thinking of someone else has gone through before. So here goes. Oh, by the way, it was in the water about 4 weeks last summer and I took it out 2, maybe 3 times, then put my Mac 25 in for my currently boatless friend to use. I have been doing other work on it in the meantime as ideas, money and time occur.
Carrying the boom: So far I leave the sail on the boom with the sail cover over it. Topping lift remains on and acts as a silent helper untill it is in place down below. I don't want to leave it on the floor or on top of the table and galley, nor in the aft berth because it still takes up floor space from there. I figure if it is free to move around it will beat something up sooner or later. I've been thinking of setting up nylon straps from the overhead to hold it up off the floor. This would keep it up out of my way and out of harms way. On the way in to work this morning I was thinking about Mergatroid's headliner problem and injecting epoxy to make the deck and liner one piece and figured that is my best chance of being able to hang the boom out of the way. Anyone have any constructive thoughts? How do other owners of similar boats (26, 240, 23.5 etc) carry their booms out on the highway?
Carrying the boom: So far I leave the sail on the boom with the sail cover over it. Topping lift remains on and acts as a silent helper untill it is in place down below. I don't want to leave it on the floor or on top of the table and galley, nor in the aft berth because it still takes up floor space from there. I figure if it is free to move around it will beat something up sooner or later. I've been thinking of setting up nylon straps from the overhead to hold it up off the floor. This would keep it up out of my way and out of harms way. On the way in to work this morning I was thinking about Mergatroid's headliner problem and injecting epoxy to make the deck and liner one piece and figured that is my best chance of being able to hang the boom out of the way. Anyone have any constructive thoughts? How do other owners of similar boats (26, 240, 23.5 etc) carry their booms out on the highway?