Re: Boom choices

From: Booker Bense (bbense@networking.stanford.edu-DeleteThis)
Date: Mon May 10 1999 - 15:27:44 PDT


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Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 15:27:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: Booker Bense <bbense@networking.stanford.edu-DeleteThis>
To: Multiple recipients of list <wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis>
Subject: Re: Boom choices
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On Mon, 10 May 1999, Scott Winkler wrote:

> I broke a total of 4 fiberspar booms starting a couple of years ago across
> 2 seasons, and fiberspar/asd stood behind them. My last one, now in its 3rd
> season is holding up well; been out in surf. I am looking for to replace
> an ancient windsurf hawaii for small sails. Not necessarily sold on
> carbon; in sub-5.0 conditions (195lbs) I'm frankly not that concerned w/
> weight and speed. Does religious fresh water rinsing of alum boom help the
> corrosion problem?

- Fresh water rinsing of metal components is always a good idea.
However, the problem is that the "corrosion" occurs where it's very
difficult to rinse out. It's where the head is attached to the boom,
generally there are screws or rivets or something there. Water seeps
into them and is very difficult to flush out. I think the best thing
to do would be to some how seal these attachment points to prevent
water getting in there in the first place. This is essentiallly what
fiberspar did to fix the problem with it's original carbon booms.

- Even something as simple as putting heat shrink tubing over the
screw heads might help. You can get this stuff at Fry's.

- Booker C. Bense

-BTW, technically aluminum doesn't corrode, what happens is that
metals in the seawater deposit on the surface ( aluminum is a
cathode ? Some chemist will correct me.). This build up of
material stresses the aluminum and causes it to crack.



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