|
BOOM TIMES By John
McNally Things are either looking up or looking down, I'm not sure which. I've been invited out for a sail in Sydney's gorgeous Pittwater. It's to be aboard Frank Turton's really lovely Catalina 34, which has history, so it doesn't smell of formaldehyde. The weather is postcard variety and I have every reason to be at peace with the world. Problem is, I'm supposed to be doing a product evaluation on a self-furling boom. Hang on, I normally evaluate where to boogie around the coastline of Oz but evaluating self-furling . . . I can still remember when I arrived in the big city in another life and went on my first sail. It took three of us a good half-hour to get the mainsail out of its bag, thread in the battens and finally drag it up the pole. And suddenly, sailing was not looking like that usual cliché about being attuned with nature because it took another half-hour to put the whole bloody lot back when we were finished. Obviously, there have been others who shared this point of view over the years and several solutions have appeared. The most obvious was an extension of the self-furling jib idea by which the mainsail lived permanently inside the mast. There are all manners of compromise associated with this design, but it certainly solved the batten question; you don't have any! The next idea was to somehow roll it up in the boom. A good theory, but the ones I've seen certainly don't enhance the looks of a Pride and Joy. And the models that require drilling holes through the mast set off warning bells . . . if God wanted masts to have holes in them… Anyway, back to Frank's Pride and Joy sailing on Pittwater. It's been fitted with an all-new, state-of-the-art self-furling boom appropriately called FURLBOOM. Joe Brookes, who designed and built it is also onboard which is alright with Frank and me because Joe's the sort of bloke who loves to fiddle with his baby. This new boom has taken an enormous burden off Frank with his previous mainsail system. It allows us to sit back in the sun and watch while Joe puts the FURLBOOM through its paces. Of course, Frank has already done this quite a few times but he doesn't mind somebody else having a play. So what can I tell you? Looks good. Works like a dream and apparently doesn't cost an arm and a leg. This is the sort of thing that should be standard on everyone's Pride and Joy. The FURLBOOM that is. John McNally |