J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Gooseneck

I have a 1981 J30 with a very loose gooseneck. I have replaced the machine screws which provide very little resistance to prevent the gooseneck from working up and down in a scissor like motion with boom. Any one come up with a corrective procedure? Thanks, Paul

Do you mean the cast aluminum boom end fitting near the gooseneck? If so, I drilled out the holes to a larger diameter and changed the small machine screws to a larger through-bolt. The end fitting still works a little bit, but I don't have any worry about it coming off. Most of the time, the end fitting is loaded in compression by the sail forces. The times I see the boom moving in relation to its end fitting is when we're sailing deep downwind.

[This message has been edited by jmruzzi (edited 05-15-2001).]

Paul: I know that you posted your question a LONG time ago, but I did have a similar problem with my boom. It had worked itself to the point where the end of the boom was just slightly flared out.

At the local plastics stores, I bought a small, thin sheet of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_high_molecular_weight_polyethylene)

You can cut UHMW with scissors and its virtually indestructable to wear. I made three small "shims" that I wedged in between the boom and gooseneck fitting when I resinserted the fitting. I needed a rubber mallet to persuade the fitting back in gently.

After reinstalling the fasteners, the fit was as snug as you could hope for.

I've since replaced the boom (to solve a, er, slight "bend" at the vang), but plan to put a small UHMW shim in the new one to make up for the wear on the old gooseneck.