Boom Brake vs Preventer

[charliehows]

yeah mine is same as a wichard, simple, effective.

[Capt. Don]

Has anyone here ever tried the capt. Don boom brake?

[Andrew Troup]

Originally Posted by Capt. Don

Has anyone here ever tried the capt. Don boom brake?

Ummm ... from your name, I'm guessing you have?


ON EDIT:
(interesting: we seem to have a 'Capt. Don', and a 'Capt.Don', both reading this thread at the same time! Is there also a 'Capt.Don' boombrake?)

[phantomracer]

love my dutchman boom brake. will never own a boat without it. set and forget (once you get it dialed in)

our boat came with a preventer.. but it was a pain to use.

I had zero luck with the gyb Easy. Called and emailed the company without any reply to my install questions. Dutchaman answers the phone on the first ring, every time, and have been very helpful.

I couldnt get the gyb easy to feather (ie brake), it was either on, or off. Since I couldn't get any support from them, I had to junk it for the dutchman, which is very easy to dial in, set up, and use

[SimonV]

+1 on the Dutchman boom break. I too would never own a boat without one. By having the control lines as far forward as possible , mine are on the rail short of the mast it makes a great preventer and if things go belly up it allows the jibe but controlled.

Sent from my GT-N7105T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[msponer]

Yep, also been very happy with the Dutchman boom brake. I broke a boom once, using the vang on the rail as a preventer, and so am a firm believer in the Dutchman style of letting the boom come across, but slowly.

[KrazySailing]

Here's another opinion:
Rigging a Proper Preventer, Part 1

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Capt. Don

Has anyone here ever tried the capt. Don boom brake?

Originally Posted by Andrew Troup

Ummm ... from your name, I'm guessing you have?


ON EDIT:
(interesting: we seem to have a 'Capt. Don', and a 'Capt.Don', both reading this thread at the same time! Is there also a 'Capt.Don' boombrake?)

Yup...and here is a post of his from a multi-hull thread...Busted!

Capt. Don
New Member
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 1


Boom Brakes, replacement anchor and Genoa rollers and custom parts
"Hi Folk,
I was recently approached by a good number of Lagoon Cat owners on the Yahoo Lagoon forums to make them replacement rollers as I am a machinist, was a commercial captain.

Next people asked me to design and make a boom brake that was strong anough for larger boats and inexpensive. So this little side business has grown in the last few weeks. I am making 316L ss boom brakes for $65 and custom making rollers and other parts that are hard to find. See: Boat Parts

If you have any requests feel free to email me.
Best regards
Capt. Don"

[FSMike]

Can't be busted too badly, on his post #17 of this thread he identifies himself as a commercial member.

[Capt. Don]

I appreciate you posting the message above as it contains a link to my web site which I had intentionally not listed as it is against forum rules. It also shows some of the other projects I have designed over the years including the hundreds of thousands of school kids I have helped and the dozens of charities I supported including the troops when they first arrived in Baghdad.

So what is so evil about trying to make an inexpensive option that everyone keeps asking for? If I don't mention it nobody will know about it. It is hypocritical if it is alright to mention any product from someone else, maybe a friends but is taboo to create a viable solution that is better than others and not be able to introduce it to others. If you want to know about many of the parts I have made at way below the cost and better quality than West Marine and others and the feedback from the people I have helped then go through the postings on the Yahoo Lagoon owners or Leopard cats groups or see some of the comments posted under the boat parts I made for others on my web site.
I lost everything in the recession and was a week away from living under a bridge, maybe I gave way to much to charities for my own good. I got a job 2 years ago part time with lousy pay and no benefits at a machine shop, learned everything I could including programming the cnc machines, got certified in welding. learned CAD and CAM software, designed improved fixtures and production tooling for the shop that dramatically improved their profits, designed a number of machines for steel mills and motion industries. Since I spent 4 years at sea full time and got my commercial masters tickets and engineers tickets and my passion is sailing and being at sea I thought I would apply my skills to making marine products and be really good at it and offer inexpensive solutions that people wanted. I have a large number of products on the drawing board and everyday I work late at night designing new ones. A lot of people now send me their projects and I improve their designs and then fabricate them. After Andrew Troup posted his comment above I contacted him privately and I believe we have already made major progress on great new product I will make tooling for in the next few days. It is very possible that it will be on numerous OEM boats in the foreseeable future. So if you want smart new options for projects you would like to see contact me privately. Thanks again for posting the message above.

[Celestialsailor]

Sorry...my bad

[Andrew Troup]

I too am deeply sorry and would delete my post if I could

(any mods sifting about?)

I shot from the hip without doing ANY diligence.

I have since become acquainted with the
background and exchanged PMs with Don, who has
been more than charitable, and I feel very small indeed.

[pbr]

I have installed boom brakes on over 150 yachts, dating back to the late 1970's starting with the Walder boom brake. Setting preventers can be one of the most dangerous maneuvers when under way, the boom brake allows you to do it without leaving the cockpit, it also works as a boom gallows to keep the boom from swinging with sail down when motoring or at anchor.

In my opinion every sailboat should have one. So far I have found the Dutchman is currently the best design and is basically an improvement of the old Walder. There are limitations on the size of the main that can be accommodated, I have installed the largest Dutchman on a 52 ft. catamaran with about 1000 sq.ft. of sail area. I would say it would take a custom one for larger sails.

Proper installation and location of attachment points is key, otherwise the geometry doesn't work. And I would blame any negatives opinions on improper installation.

Manufacturers haven't installed them standard primarily because of the added cost. I believe I am the only manufacturer to ever make them standard equipment, but for me safety has always been a priority.

[Capt. Don]

Well said pbr. I absolutely agree that they should be standard items. It appears to me that many people consider boom brakes but when faced with the high cost and difficulty installing them they forget about it. This is sad since they can be a life saver, besides reducing stress on crew and boat.

[Capt. Don]

Since so many people had difficulty guessing where to install their boom brakes I have created a spreadsheet that should be very useful for finding a good location.

It will calculate the friction line lengths every 10 degrees of boom sweep for many different locations of the boom brake. Just input 4 simple dimensions and it will do the rest. It is a work in progress but the objective is to find the location that provides the least change in friction line length over the maximum boom sweep angle for your boat. The spreadsheet does up to 70 degrees but you are unlikely to have this much boom out as your sail will chafe on the shrouds so disregard the angles above your maximum. http://dreamgreen.org/images/Boat-Pa...akes/F&C44.xls

Required:
Height of boom above anchor points
Horizontal Length between anchor points
Attach points of vang to boom from gooseneck
Distance of anchor points aft of gooseneck