i have been thinking about making a wide tail for a while now. After going through my collection of old carbon booms i put this together last night,
I have just used some marine ply, 6ounce glass, epoxy and black tint.
Early days yet as i have only just glassed both sides. Tomorrow i will glass the edges.
Here is some pics of the job so far. I hope works ok
If it works Bender I'm making one as well.
Looks great!
I've suspected that some modern sails are designed to hit the boom, to hold the shape forward, but some narrow booms don't allow enough draft for speed downwind.
Its an old arrows formula boom. a while bback i cut it down to take 7.8 and 8.6m sails. i then put its wide tail on another boom so this one was tailess. if it works i will put one on my 150-200 areon carbon for my small sails.
Sails seem to set alot nicer with a wide tail especially when they are bagged out.
Good work. I was thinking about this myself and you've shown me a straightforward way for construction.
I'm wondering how much can you push a boom that wasn't designed for a wide tail, Would you be creating more preassure on the head area or arms by flexing it more than it was designed to be?
Are u sure the 5 ply will be strong enough? Gather u are putting quite a bit of glass on?
I'd have gone with ally plate, or maybe balsa / dinvinycell etc and glass sandwich or something for lightness.
I dunno, 5 ply may be fine with lotsa glass but with pulleys bolted thru with only a 5mm ish bolt and lots of stress......
Wide tail end MkII
The first one proved to weak and failed. i have used the latest one for an hour so far with good results.
Just for interest, when you let out an adjustable outhaul, does the clew stay central within the boom or go to one edge? If it stays central, great, but if it goes to one edge that must change sheeting angles?