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justal - 14-8-2003 at 19:25

I broke another boom today.

Heres the bit about it from my diary entry:

quote:

Gybing was fun too. On the inside there were always several groups of bikini clads girls to use as gybe markers. I scared a few of them and sprayed a few with water as I went by, but they seemed to enjoy it! A couple of particularly fine specimens came to chat to me at one point whilst I was stopped in the shallows.

After the chat I went blasting off promising to use them as my gybe marker, and showing off a little popped a nice jump off one of the small waves. I though I felt a little weird as I landed, but carried on regardless. A few hundred yards out, I was just beginning to think to myself what a good session this was and that it would get 5 stars, when my boom started feeling a little wobbly, and then just as I was looking around to see what was wrong, BOOM... it snapped in big style and dropped me into the water. It had snapped at both ends and there was no chance of sailing back, so I started a massive swim back to shore which took me ages. I was quite a way out when it happened and had to swim all the way back in dragging my kit behind me. Luckily Ben (who was out kite-surfing) saw me swimming back in so knew that I was out there. I just hope the bikini girls didn't miss me and phone the coastguard!!!


Now I know why they call the booms....thats the noise it made as it snapped!!!

Guess that means another phone call to Gun Sails tomorrow to get it replaced. It has a years warranty and is only just over 4 months old, so they should just replace it for me.

Other than that though it was just a perfect session, and quite unexpected as there wasn't supposed to be any where near that much wind.

Al.

badexcuseforasailor - 14-8-2003 at 21:42

How many booms is that you have broken? Only 4 months old, but how many sessions ?

SeanBo - 14-8-2003 at 23:33

This should be where the diaries start to pay off. How many sessions until a boom breaks?

One off examples will not tell the whole story, but if there are a few more people (300+!) adding diary entries then we should get to know the facts that the manufacturers do not want us to hear!

justal - 15-8-2003 at 05:49

I'd used it 44 times in the four months. It sounds a bit better I guess than just saying it was 4 months old, but that still works out at about £2 per session just for the boom!

Mind you, they should replace it so thats OK. How many sessions would you expect to get out of a boom.

The last one I snapped lasted for about 60 sessions.

Al.

P.S. Was there any wind anywhere else yesterday??

SeanBo - 15-8-2003 at 07:37

There was some breeze here yesterday, but I think calling it wind would have been a bit much

paul - 15-8-2003 at 08:50

why not ask gun how many sessions they reckon, sounds like you should get a bigger discount from them for "stress testing" their kit

badexcuseforasailor - 15-8-2003 at 09:14

There was wind here but I had to go to work and boss knows that I windsurf so throwing a sicky wasn't a good idea.

justal - 5-9-2003 at 19:54

Well, my booms been returned from Gun, complete with a new front end and a new back end.... Now does that coount as a new boom as far as the diaries are concerned or is it just my old one reincarnated???

I'll go for the latter I think as it was repaired under the warranty so didn't cost me anything... If the forecasts are right, I might even get a chance to try and break it again this weekend!!!!

Al.

Dave - 6-9-2003 at 17:37

I'm a bit worried, 'cos I've never broken a boom....

Now that I have said that I'm really worried.

Mind you I did break my finger on the boom, so if the boom hadn't been so strong it may have given instead of my finger.