Rigid Boom Vang Failure
- Thread starter jviss
- Start date
Just pulled the entire thing apart. Required a winch. Someone installed the adjustment pin on top of that white nylon bearing that you can see in the pics. It cracked and distorted, causing it to jam in the outer tube.
I've made a makeshift repair. Seems OK. Details to follow.
I've made a makeshift repair. Seems OK. Details to follow.
O.K., so I pulled it apart with the primary winch. The white, nylon bearing piece is actually two pieces; they are on either side the internal rod, and serve as a bearing in the outer tube, and also locate the axel for a sheave for the internal, wire purchase. It's 4" long. It was cracked in a few places. I cut off a good section and drilled holes for the axel (not all the way through). I cleaned everything, including some corrosion in the end of the outer tube. Reassembled and it works! Adjusted so the boom is about 5º above lever - it's hard to tell. I have one more hole location to use if I want it higher.
I may just clean up that damaged metal on the outer tube and stay with this; especially at $1,000 for a replacement!
I'm pretty certain parts are not available, as this is a discontinued part, and the remaining stock is sale-priced to move out. But, I will ask.
Thanks for your interest!
jv
I may just clean up that damaged metal on the outer tube and stay with this; especially at $1,000 for a replacement!
I'm pretty certain parts are not available, as this is a discontinued part, and the remaining stock is sale-priced to move out. But, I will ask.
Thanks for your interest!
jv
Thanks Gunni. Yea, I saw that. I'll be that there's not much difference between all of these. Except Garhauer, of course, everything he makes is polished stainless steel.
I'll see.... The Forespar is also $900 without brackets or tackle.
Now that I have a working repair I have some breathing room to think about this, and do some research.
All rigid vangs are not the same. Your current vang, and the cheaper Garhauer hang a block and tackle assembly below the rigid vang. The more expensive Forespar and Garhauer rigid vang have the line sheaves built into the vang ends. This keeps your lines from tangling with other running rigging routed to the mast base ring, and fouling its own blocks. US Spars also builds custom rigid vangs on spec. This is one place on a sailboat where I would lean to a lighter alloy construction, not iron.
@Gunni , I'm going to have to take exception to that. All of the Garhauer rigid boom vangs in their online catalog have external tackles; and all of the Forespar rigid vangs have external tackles, as well. It may be that they have some other arrangement that's not shown in their online catalogs, but I don't know.
The Offshore Vang that I have has an internal, wire-rope "gun tackle," for a 2:1 mechanical advantage, with a 4:1 (I think) rope tackle externally. This seems to be a very common arrangement.
I think mine was damaged not because it is undersized for the job, but because it was installed incorrectly, as I noted previously. Now, having disassembled and cleaned it, and fixed the broken, binding bearing, and installed it correctly, it seems to work perfectly. My intuition is that it is strong enough, too.
The only remaining things to do are to address the torn metal in the outer tube, clean and lube the external tackle blocks, and probably replace the line.
The Offshore Vang that I have has an internal, wire-rope "gun tackle," for a 2:1 mechanical advantage, with a 4:1 (I think) rope tackle externally. This seems to be a very common arrangement.
I think mine was damaged not because it is undersized for the job, but because it was installed incorrectly, as I noted previously. Now, having disassembled and cleaned it, and fixed the broken, binding bearing, and installed it correctly, it seems to work perfectly. My intuition is that it is strong enough, too.
The only remaining things to do are to address the torn metal in the outer tube, clean and lube the external tackle blocks, and probably replace the line.