reconditioning aluminum boom

[Terry in Naples]

I just spent the day stripping my Catalina 34 of sails due to the arrival this week of Ernesto. I noticed I have some pits in the boom. I have a Doyle Stack pack and it leaves the boom exposed. After taking the sail off I sprayed the boom with T9. It looks better but I need to stop this problme. I do not think it is ready for a " sand off and paint job" Does anyone know how to stop this with regular maintenance or something to smooth this out?

 

[David]

Ferenc Mate book

Check out the book on boat maintenance by Ferenc Mate, author of "world's Best Sailboats". He has a whole chapter on what to do about minor corrosion on aluminum booms, masts, etc. In short, sand to clean metal, prime and paint. And BTW, if you did all the maintenance he suggests in his book, you'd spend 11 months maintaining the boat and 1 month sailing.