Wishbone Boom

[Bill at BOATS 4 SAIL]

Does anyone have any experience with a wishbone boom?
I was moving some inventory around today and I found one that I think must have come from a wind surfer.
I'm thinking of trying it on my Mac 19. It has a loose-footed mains'l and end-boom sheeting. I'm putting a traveler on it across the stern rail and I think it will work.
The boom is fairly low on the 19 and this would raise most of it.

[Rich Smith]

It worked well on the Nonsuch sailboats

[Frank C]

Bill - go for the market! Rig that puppy on your X-boat. If it makes it as fast (or faster) than the rotating mast, you'll have an instant monopoly market of 5,000 X-skippers!

[They Theirs]

I'm waiting for the prototype....Wishbone Technology Upgrades

[Andy26M]

I'm not sure how long the boom of a Mac19 is, but is the windsurfer boom long enough for it?

The other thing to watch out for is that a windsurfer boom structurally never has to actually hold any more force than the weight of the sailor - i.e. if I weigh 190 lbs. and the winsurfer rig pulls at 200 lbs., I am going into the water. If you mount that puppy between a solid vertical mast and a traveler on a boat substantially heavier than a sailboard, I suspect you'll exceed it's structural strength pretty easily and potentially damage your boat or whatever sail you rig up on it when the boom folds up like a wet taco.

So, I would not say "don't try it", but I would be very careful about wind speed for the test

- Andy26M

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Will you rig up a windsurfer sail (high clew) or use a normal Mac sail?