Boom Brake

George and I just returned from a sailing trip to Annapolis. We traveled there to get some work done in the boat. One of the things we had done was installation of a boom brake. I had heard of these a while back from the women on the the FaceBook group, Women Who Sail. They sounded like a very good idea. A boom brake essentially slows the movement of the boom when it moves from one side to the other. This is helpful when sailing down wind, when the boom is far out. It has to go quite a distance to go from me side to the other when turning (gybing). If there is a strong wind it will move with a lot of force, potentially damaging the boat. Normally we control the movement of the boom while gybing by pulling the main sheet to bring the boom in as the boat is turning. One of us operates the main sheet and the other turns the wheel. It is not an issue when we are both in the cockpit. It was an issue, though, when we were sailing overnight down wind in the Atlantic last May. We tried to time our gybes to our sleep schedule, but it turned out that we needed to gybe every hour and a half or so. Now the boom brake will enable us to gybe single-handed.

I have to admit that I wasn't sure I liked it after it was installed. It seems awfully big and has lines that criss-cross the deck. It looked like a big tripping hazard. I changed my mind, though, when I saw how well it worked. Not only will it make gybing easier but it should enable us to sail deeper angles without worrying about unexpected gybes.

The boom brake

Lines go from the boom brake to blocks on both sides, then back to winches in the cockpit. I took this photo yesterday morning as George was preparing to raise the anchor.

 

Posted with Blogsy