August 11, 2011
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Banshee Gooseneck
One of the notorious problems with Banshees is that the gooseneck will inevitably break. I’ve seen different kinds of fixes, but recently I saw a novel one that I thought I’d record here, for anyone searching the Internet for gooseneck repair options.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I was shopping for spare parts for my Banshee, and I met a man who was selling one of his. He had the gooseneck problem, also, and this is how he fixed it:
The new gooseneck has a pin that inserts into the boom end.
This is the new end of the boom, with plastic socket for the pin.It works, because really, the sail being a unarig, there’s not a whole lot of outhaul pressure on the foot of the sail. So, the socket is really just to keep the boom aligned with the mast.
It’s a clever solution, and if my gooseneck should break again, I’ll probably implement this fix instead.
I thought it was kind of funny that the guy who was selling this sailboat ended up joining the sailing club and sailing it last weekend, instead of selling it. When I went to look at his boat, I asked him why he was selling it, and he said, “I’m too old to be sailing.” I told him, “I don’t think so.” If you can walk and move your hand enough to open a door, you can still sail.
