E32-3 - Help my boom is disintegrating?

S

SarahL

Junior Member
After a great sail on Saturday, one of the crew noticed an innocuous looking semi-circular piece of aluminum lying on deck near the foot of the mast. It took a while for us to figure out where it came from:

E32-3 boom broken.jpg

That's probably hard to see - it's the front end of the boom where it attaches to the gooseneck. Here it is again with the missing bit back in place:

boom complete small.jpg

Disturbingly, we found that the exact same piece was missing on the other side of the boom, too. My first question is, what would cause this damage? Does it mean the bolt has been over tightened, causing the aluminum to crack, or could it somehow be normal wear and tear? It is less than a year since the rig was inspected, mast unstepped, painted, restepped, all new standing rigging, etc..
Other questions - is the boom about to come free of the gooseneck? I'm guessing that the forces when sailing have a tendency to push the boom forward towards the mast, so it could have been like this for some time without anything drastic happening. Perhaps I'm wrong?
Does this look reparable or am I looking for a new boom? All opinions and advice welcomed.
:esad:
 
tenders

tenders

Innocent Bystander
My guess would be that the bolt was overtightened, putting too much squeezing force across the fitting...and that's the weakest link.

My advice would be to take that part to a welder and have them build up that "ear" again. Then, paint the part white (primed with aluminum etching or some other primer - actually it isn't that hard) and you'll be back in action again.

How do I know this? Well, the same thing happened to me on my 1969 32 about ten years ago although the fittings are a little different.

You might get lucky sorting through salvage yards but doing that will take a long time.
 
S

SarahL

Junior Member
Thanks - you've confirmed my best guess. Good idea about the welder, (tho I hope I can paint it black, not white!) Now, I wonder what are my chances of getting the yard to accept any responsibility for overtightening in the first place... :esad:
 
Guy Stevens

Guy Stevens

Moderator
Moderator
Corrosion

Corrosion also played a part in this failure.

The boom end is aluminum and appears to be quite corroded also.

Having the boom end fitting which is aluminum laminated between three pieces of stainless steel without isolation or even some tef gel is going to result in a lot of dissimilar metal corrosion. That appears as the white powder that is seen in the photos on the surface of the part, and the surface of the break.

The washers were added for what purpose? Why two of them? (Possibly to take up space so that the bolt could be tightened more?).

My guess is that little was done with this part in your recent rerig. The goosneck was removed from the mast, and the boom masked and painted. Was the end fitting removed from the boom? This does not look like it was disassembled and correctly reassembled.

The corrosion and the over tightening of the bolt prevented the boom end fitting from rotating up or down on the gooseneck. The corrosion more than the over tightening, but both contributed to the failure.

Guy
:)
 
S

SarahL

Junior Member
Thanks again. There is bare aluminum showing where the paint is missing, but it is not powdery. It's a good question, what exactly did they undo and redo. I'm going to go back to the pictures from the survey last May and see if I can tell whether the washers were there before the mast was unstepped or not.
 
Guy Stevens

Guy Stevens

Moderator
Moderator
Your Vang is pulling the boom forward.

The vang is currently pulling the boom forward on the goosneck. It does appear that if you were to loosen the vang sufficiently and gave a half hearted tug the boom would come off of the goosneck. (The mainsheet may be pulling a little forward too, I can't see how it is rigged)

The part that is broken is a cast part, and is not going to weld very well.

Last time I checked I could not find a ready replacement on the new market.

However this piece can be fabricated, it will be a costly fix however. Kenyon spars went out of business a long time ago.

I would look around and see what was available on the used market if you can find one. Minis, blue Pelican, etc. But I would not hold my breath, cast aluminum parts don't do well in the marine environment. This piece in particular has some issues with dissimilar metal corrosion on most of the boats I have inspected.

Guy
:)
 
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mherrcat

mherrcat

Contributing Partner
If your boom is made from the 3550 extrusion, Kelly Marine in San Pedro, CA may have both the gooseneck and outhaul end fittings. I know I saw a new outhaul fitting there for that size boom extrusion about a year ago and think I may have seen the gooseneck fitting as well. (It was on a shelf with a lot of other miscellaneous hardware.) Kelly's is kind of like Minney's and other places that sell used sailboat hardware, etc. I think they wanted something like $75 for it.

http://www.kellymarine.com/
 
G

Glyn Judson

Moderator
Moderator
Gooseneck replacement.

Also try Rodney Higuerra at Le Fiell 800.451.5971-7 here in SoCal. If your spar was made by them, there's a good chance that he can hook you up with an identical replacement just as they did several years ago when my friend Gary had his gooseneck crack on his E31. for that matter, he supplied me with a mast base that had turned to white powder when I thought all was lost. Rodney is very knowledgable about the old product line and is an all around nice guy who will more than work with you to solve your problem. I'd suggest taking several additional photos of the entire gooseneck complete with measurements like height, etc to help him or anyone else for that matter, help you. Good luck, Glyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey, CA
 
S

SarahL

Junior Member
My spar is definitely a Kenyon - so is there some connection I'm missing between Kenyon and La Fiell?

Glyn Judson said:
Also try Rodney Higuerra at Le Fiell 800.451.5971-7 here in SoCal. If your spar was made by them, there's a good chance that he can hook you up with an identical replacement just as they did several years ago when my friend Gary had his gooseneck crack on his E31. for that matter, he supplied me with a mast base that had turned to white powder when I thought all was lost. Rodney is very knowledgable about the old product line and is an all around nice guy who will more than work with you to solve your problem. I'd suggest taking several additional photos of the entire gooseneck complete with measurements like height, etc to help him or anyone else for that matter, help you. Good luck, Glyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey, CA
Click to expand...
 
Guy Stevens

Guy Stevens

Moderator
Moderator
Lefiell won't be able to help with this

The spar is a Kenyon.

Lefiell isn't going to have anything that is going to help with this.

Guy
:)
 
markvone

markvone

Sustaining Member
Call Rigrite (yes - sit down first)

I would call Rigrite to see if the part is available and what the price baseline is.

http://www.rigrite.com/Spars/Kenyon_Spars/3550-Boom.html

Replacing the gooseneck boom end will be the simplest repair.

The Kenyon section 3550 boom was pretty common and I've seen them on eBay, Craigslist and in the local marine surplus store for $100-400 complete. This might be lower than Rigrite, but you will have to search for one or wait for one to show up on the market, not great when you need a boom now.

Mark
 
S

SarahL

Junior Member
Thanks

Today I checked the section, it is indeed the Kenyon 3550. I tried Kelly's, and they don't have the part any more, if they ever did. First thing tomorrow I will fortify myself with strong coffee and call RigRite.

My next concern, assuming I can get the part, is how to make sure it is not overtightened again. Maybe that was never really the problem, but how would I know?
 
mherrcat

mherrcat

Contributing Partner
It doesn't have to be tight at all. Just turn the nut down until the washer makes contact with the boom fitting.(I also put nylon washers under those metal washers.) In fact, it shouldn't be tight, because you don't want the toggle fitting (the stainless steel part with the reefing hooks) and the gooseneck/boom to be rigidly clamped together. The boom should be able to move up and down. When my boat is sitting at the dock with the sail covered I always raise the back of the boom up with the topping lift to get more headroom in the cockpit area.
 
S

SarahL

Junior Member
Update

Well I never did find a replacement fitting - nothing at Rigrite or at any of the many consignment places I contacted. Though if you need a fitting for a smaller Kenyon boom - for an E28, I think, there was one at BRS in Texas here

But all was not lost as Svensden's metal shop were able to redrill the existing gooseneck fitting - there's no loss of function (well, I lost the cam cleats, but I never used them anyway) and the bolt now goes through the full thickness of the alumium, rather than through that weak point as in the old design. All for 3 hours of labor (including some welding on the stainless steel gooseneck itself).

The new improved one:

Gooseneck fixed.jpg

The original:

3550-Boom_K-11126.jpg


I'm still not sure how they worked their magic - but I'm very happy with the result. We took the opportunity while the boom was apart to replace the frozen blocks, worn line and nasty wire pennant from the outhaul, which was probably original from 1987, so actually everything is working better than before.
:)
 
A

aquavit

Member II
It appears that they welded some aluminum plate onto the gooseneck. Looks like clean welds, probably TIG. The weld is long and spreads the stress over a large area. I would be really surprised if that ever failed again. I used to do similar repairs to aluminum automotive cylinder heads, Cummins bell housings and oil pans and other aluminum bits and pieces. The failure rate was almost zero as long as the parts were prepped well before welding.

Glenn
Aquavit
 
A

Avie

New Member
E-27 Boom to mast connection

Does anyone have information on finding a replacement boom to mast fitting for my E-27 (picture attached)
The end has sheered off where it connects to the mast.file://localhost/Users/tomsweetser/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Masters/2012/08/01/20120801-190058/IMG_2637.JPG
 
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