replacing boom vang on Oday 25- add eye strap to boom?

[pprusak]

This forum is amazing! Great knowledgable people!

I just got some new blocks to assemble a more hardy boom vang than the one that I got with my boat. The one that came with the boat includes the streel line with teh swaged ball on the end to fit into the slot on the base of lower side of the mast.

My options are to have a small section of steel cable made that will have a loop and a ball swaged on that I can connect to the block or I can get an eye strap placed on the base of the boom and just connect the block with the little pin that is built into it.

Any suggestions, recomenations or warning about which drirection I should be heading here?

Thanks-

Paul

 

[HukilauMike]

I fastened new bails to both the boom and the base of the mast when installing a vang on my Oday 23. An eye strap for the boom is an alternative. Although more expensive, I just found that a bail was more robust and easier to install than the eye. Just easier to measure and drill the mounting holes on the wide, flat sides of the boom for the bail, rather than the narrow bottom edge for an eye strap. Whichever you do, make sure to get self-tapping screws, and to isolate the stainless of the screwsfrom the aluminum boom/mast as much as possible. I did this by using an anti-seizing goop on the screws (I know they even sell one that is made as an anti-galvanizing isolator), and by making "washers" for use between the bail arms and the boom/mast. I made them from some scrap neoprene, but you can use anything made from rubber. Good luck.

 

[RichBone]

Do you have a halyard organizer plate at the mast step? This would be the ideal solution.

Halyard Organizer Plate: K-1374HP
http://rigrite.com/Spars/Kenyon_Spars/3550-Mast.html

If not, I would suggest an external bail at the base of the mast. Much stronger than an eye strap, which could pull out if not if not through bolted. A bail would better take the side pull of the vang.

Here is what I did on the boom.

I used a Boom Bail - Internal: K-11364
http://rigrite.com/Spars/Kenyon_Spars/D-boom.html

I cut a slot in the boom and mounted it on the inside.

Or you could just use an external bail.

Rich

 

[Joe11688]

Rich,
I have the same type of boom bails on my boom as yours. They fit in a slot under the boom and are riveted in place. If you have a bail at the end of your boom that you no longer use because you have a traveler near your companionway, you would be wise to remove it. I have been whacked on the top of my head by this bail twice and each time I received a stiff neck with excruciating pain that lasted for days. I was using this bail to attach my sail jock to. So I cut the bail off this past summer with my Dremel Tool w/ a cutting wheel and I drilled a hole for a bolt to hold a plastic electric wire clip. Lessons learned.
Joe

 

[kdssail]

I suggest using a mast plate where you can fasten the vang to the plate not the mast. With anything else mounted at the base of the MAST that prohibits you from lowering the mast to the stern, you'll poke a hole in the top!!!! With a base plate you have the option to lower in either direction situation demanding.