Roller Furling Boom Handle

(Santana Owners Only!)

 

O.K., here was my typical situation:

Its starting to blow like stink, I need to reef. First, I fumble around in the locker to find the crank for the boom. Once located, I carry it forward, nearly dropping it. I arrive at the mast and connect the handle. The boat is pitching every which way. Turning the handle back and forth I struggle to get the pin out of the little hole of the boom stem (this usually takes some creative and persuasive language). Next, I uncleat the main halyard from the horn cleat. I start turning the crank while keeping some tension on the halyard (more on this in the main halyard section) so that the sail rolls up tight. Once it is where I want it, I must now find that darn hole again to re-insert the pin (which is usually wrapped around something on its little lanyard by now). This requires both rotating the handle and trying to pull the boom stem forward and back to align the holes (not pretty). Finally, you may now retighten the main halyard. (c'mon, everyone together now, "I feel your pain...."!)

 

My solution to all of this involved 1) not having to carry a separate handle, 2) not having to deal with that stupid little pin.

I thought of a "folding" handle that stayed attached at the mast. It would fold up and the handle part your hand uses to crank with is what stops it from turning by hitting the mast when it is folded. Here is my solution:

I used a standard trailer winch handle that I cut the end off of. I also bought a SS toggle to attach to the end. After cutting off the end of the winch handle, I made a notch in it that the toggle slot could slide into. This added some side-to-side stability in addition to the bolt. I drilled a hole where needed and put a bolt and nut through. The hold part of the toggle is used at the boom end and a 1/4 inch clevis pin is put through the toggle and the boom stem as it sticks through the mast.

Here are some pictures that are absolutely horrible! (can you say "macro"?). I will try to get better ones soon.

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