Harpoon Boom Casting and Gooseneck

Posted By: Ted, Harpoon599
Date: 2/10/08 9:41p.m.

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I read on the forum about others that broke the tack fitting on the boom, as I did on my last sail in the fall. I’ve sailed boats with fixed and sliding goosenecks, but I think I’d describe the Harpoon gooseneck as “permanent”. As setup on Kenyon spars, the gooseneck is fixed to the mast and bolted to the boom. I have stepped and dropped the mast with the boom twisted and lashed to the mast, but this makes the mast heavier. Experimenting with the boom unfolded lead to a lot of banging around, so I tried with the boom in the crutch, resulting in the nasty snapping sound of cast aluminum. The Harpoon Handbook does not describe the necessary 90° twist and the drawings on page 25 show a sliding gooseneck, which makes me wonder if this is the original gooseneck design. Before I buy a new casting, has anyone modified or installed an alternate gooseneck assembly to consider? I seem to recall seeing some rigs for holding the boom for trailering on one of the web sites, implying that the boom is normally disconnected from the mast on some boats. Removing the bolt each time seems highly inconvenient, so I assume there is another set of hardware out there.