Tally Ho Gooseneck

[Christian Williams]

I'm worried. Given the length of the boom, and the forces of a gaff rig, the gooseneck seems too elegant. Its pin--is it bronze? --is hardly larger than the E38, or at least not proportionally enlarged.

Of course they have naval architect support and history and five levels of expertise on their side. But it looks... undersized.

Episode:

 

[Bolo]

It looks beautiful and as you say elegant. So that invokes the age old question in engineering and design. Was it designed to have form following function or function following form? My first impression/question is what’s with the extra space where the pin connects the boom end to the mast? Is that there to allow the mast to travel up in the fitting for some reason? Seems like that could be a pint for failure considering the forces involved.

 

[nquigley]

I didn't think of the engineering question - I was distracted (simply blown away is more accurate) by the workmanship on those custom spar fittings - did you see how beautifully the bronze boom endcap blended into the shaped/tapered end of the wooden boom? Apart from the craftsmanship and sheer beauty of all the custom rigging hardware, lots of $ signs kept popping into my mind ... I thought West marine is pricey - these must be astronomical.

 

[southofvictor]

What’s their mainsail area going to be vs an E38?

 

[Nick J]

It looks a little small in the original post, but in comparison to his hand that pin is probably close to 1" thick. The ears (not sure if that's the correct term) on the boom end fitting and toggle where the horizontal pin is placed looks thicker than the ones on our boats and it's bronze. It looks stout to my eyes. As Bob pointed out, I can't figure out why there's so much room on the pin between the toggle and the upper band.

Undersized or not, it's a beautiful piece of hardware and there's lots of other examples on Port Townsend Foundry's site:

Port Townsend Foundry LLC—Made in the USA

A custom and production nonferrous foundry specializing in marine hardware. Castings are tooled, poured, and finished in-house at our facility in Port Townsend, Washington.

www.porttownsendfoundry.com

Kind of fun to see what they've come up with or replicated over the years.