Boom Brake or Preventer

[Quantico Frank]

Many have already seen the Practical Sailor YouTube video about SV Platino that they emailed out this morning. If not, you can probably find it. It's about a series of unintentional jibes that killed two people and eventually brought about an open sea rescue and severely damaged (or maybe eventually destroyed) the boat.

It made me think about using a preventer or boom brake— even for my tiny P165. Does anyone have experience with either boom brakes or preventers?

[Brian N.]

No experience with boom brake/preventer but did experience more than one accidental jibe. Fortunately, no damage to boat or crew but scary. First one was years ago on a Rhodes 19, but winds were light. More recently on the P165, again winds were light, my son who had the helm was not particularly "in sync" with the small changes in the wind and the boom came over. My nephew who was just getting up from sitting got a few hairs on the top of his head ruffled. Could have been a disaster if his head was an inch higher. Normally, I hold the main sheet in hand, ready to haul in quickly, but a preventer/boom break makes sense.   

[pgandw]

The ODay/Stuart Mariner has a long boom that will catch on the backstay if the boom rises much during a jibe.  Great way to capsize and/or cause damage in heavy winds.  A decent well-secured boom vang is essential for downwind sailing on the Mariner - and did not come standard from the factory!  My first vang had the V-slot to set the vang.  This did not hold under heavy loads.  I replaced the V-slot with a cam cleat block, and feel much better about my vang.

I see a preventer causing as many problems as just tending to sailing.  In heavy winds, reversing the wind on the main is going to cause the boat to veer and probably roll suddenly.  In heavy winds, give me a good vang and an attentive skipper and crew.

Fred W

[Riggerdood]

Just watched the vid Frank. A very good, comprehensive study of that tragedy. My experience? None with boom brakes, and very little with preventers, as I rarely sail downwind/wing-on-wing, as we just don't sail much in those conditions out here. I can tell you however that I would never sail downwind with an autopilot in command of the steering. They are very good at holding a course upwind, but shite at downwind, whether they are malfunctioning or not. And I would never use a preventer of any kind w/o a very good vang as already mentioned.

[Quantico Frank]

The ODay/Stuart Mariner has a long boom that will catch on the backstay if the boom rises much during a jibe.  Great way to capsize and/or cause damage in heavy winds.  A decent well-secured boom vang is essential for downwind sailing on the Mariner - and did not come standard from the factory!  My first vang had the V-slot to set the vang.  This did not hold under heavy loads.  I replaced the V-slot with a cam cleat block, and feel much better about my vang.

I also replaced the V-slot for the boom vang that came with my P15CB with a cam cleat, and my P165 came with the cam cleat. The v-slot works fine on my out-haul, but I don't mess with that much when I'm sailing, although I think others do. I think my experience with the v-slot on my P15CB has caused me to distrust them in general.

[Quantico Frank]

Just watched the vid Frank. A very good, comprehensive study of that tragedy. My experience? None with boom brakes, and very little with preventers, as I rarely sail downwind/wing-on-wing, as we just don't sail much in those conditions out here. I can tell you however that I would never sail downwind with an autopilot in command of the steering. They are very good at holding a course upwind, but shite at downwind, whether they are malfunctioning or not. And I would never use a preventer of any kind w/o a very good vang as already mentioned.

I don't have much experience sailing downwind in heavy winds using my tiller pilot, but even in light to moderate winds it labors much more than while sailing upwind— especially in anything of a sea state. I haven't felt the need to disconnect it yet, but I certainly do have to watch it like a hawk. You make a great point that I'll keep in mind. Recently, Neptune has chosen to put the heaviest (to unsailable) winds directly against my line of travel— he has a sense of humor.

[Quantico Frank]

This video on boom brakes caught my interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5TNkdoV6hE

[Brian N.]

Very informative video - thanks Frank. My guess is that the boom brake comes in a size more suitable for boats in  our size range.

[pgandw]

I don't have much experience sailing downwind in heavy winds using my tiller pilot, but even in light to moderate winds it labors much more than while sailing upwind— especially in anything of a sea state. I haven't felt the need to disconnect it yet, but I certainly do have to watch it like a hawk. You make a great point that I'll keep in mind. Recently, Neptune has chosen to put the heaviest (to unsailable) winds directly against my line of travel— he has a sense of humor.

When I was sailing my Mariner downwind in 15-20kt winds, and surfing 6-9kts in 4ft quartering seas, I found that pulling up the centerboard ALMOST all the way up made my efforts with the rudder much easier.  With just a couple of inches of centerboard at that speed, the rudder had plenty of control, but the boat wasn't trying to turn itself around the centerboard like it did when it was fully down.  With the board fully down, the wave would try to push the stern to pivot around the centerboard as the boat would slow from a surf ride.  With the board nearly up, the wave wouldn't "trip" the boat around the centerboard.

Fred W
Stuart Mariner 19 #4133  Sweet P
Albemarle Sound, NC

[tjspiel]

I'll have to watch the video. I've been sailing off and on since I was 7 and I'm sure there have been multiple accidental jibes in that time period but I'm pretty cautious about that now and avoid sailing dead down wind altogether. In fact I try and stay a good 10 degrees or more away from that in case of wind shifts.

Most of my sailing is on small lake though and I'm not really trying to go anywhere so if avoiding dead down wind means an extra (intentional) jibe or two, that's OK.

[Sailor Sue]

We've never used a boom brake. In my opinion they would be very inconvenient to deal with on any Precision-sized boat.

That being said, we've used a preventer of some sort on every boat we've owned. On our P-23 the soft boom vang has a snap shackle on either end.  When we want/need to control the boom we simply release the shackle at the base of the mast and clip it to the base of one of the stanchions.

On our big boat with a 16 foot Leisure Furl boom (think big, and heavy!) we have a dedicated line with a heavy-duty snap hook. To use we hook it to an eye on the bottom of the boom, run it around the outside of the stanchion base, and lead it back to secondary winch in the cockpit. Very easy to keep the boom under control while gybing, then go forward when things are under control to switch the line to the other side.

It's nice not having to worry about an accidental gybe when you're sailing 30 miles to your next anchorage and it's blowing low 20s in 10 to 12 foot waves.

A club member where we keep our boat was knocked off a J/30 in heavy wind while racing. He was a very experienced sailor but the impact killed him.

[Quantico Frank]

Wow. Definitely food for thought. Thanks, Sue.

[Wolverine]

I've been struck by our Compac 19 boom. Luckily it was a glancing blow and didn't damage the boom. 

I just happen to watch this last night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfk6Lqv4Z3I&pp=ygUObGFkeSBrIHNhaWxpbmc%3D

[Brian N.]

Wolverine - Wow, just watched that video. Scary how things can go from bad to worse.

[Quantico Frank]

I just happen to watch this last night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfk6Lqv4Z3I&pp=ygUObGFkeSBrIHNhaWxpbmc%3D

Terrifying. He's right that it's hard to find any specific takeaways, other than Mother Nature can do any damn thing she wants!