cutting a carbon boom

[carlosgp5]

Hi all,
Has anybody ever tried to cut (reducing lenght) of a boom?
I have and old NP 260-310 carbon boom, and am planning to cut aproximately 20 cm of it so I can rig a 9-9.5sqm sail... However I am a bit afraid that it will force the boom´s head to structural damage as I will be closing a bit the gap between the two sides of the tail´s end of the boom... any tips?
Cheers

[shinobi]

Hi Carlos,

I've cut down a blue HPL carbon boom so that it could fit my 8.5 sail.
Cutting down the boom was not a problem at all but the fitting of the double push pin was a bit more tricky. Drilling the wholes is not the deal but the diameter of the boom arms where slightly smaller and I had some not so fun time trimming it down.

The boom is now still in a good shape and does the job, the boom head is going strong and I've equipped it with the perfect MauiSail boom head.
The only down side is that the boom feels fairly big and the rig appeals heavier. That might be good for light wind but when it is getting to the limit (that is how it should be in slalom) it doesn't go very smooth.

Anyways, you can do it and the boom will do it's job, even thought that it might not be the perfect solution depending on the bend curve.

~Shinobi

[mark h]

Ausi Tim shortened his X9 boom. The only down side is that the boom will be slightly wider than its supposed to be. Here's a link:

http://whitelionwindsurfing.blogspot.com/2010/04/diy-booms-shortening-x9-boom.html

[carlosgp5]

Tks guys... and yeah mark i saw that article... just didn´t get why did he had to do that mold for the holes instead of just marking and drilling it...

[peter n-m]

Another link:
peterman.dk/windsurf-NP-X9-boom-shortening-1000.htm

Regards,
Peter

[Unregistered]

be careful to be sure the straight back end tubes don't hit in the curve of the boom arms, which prevents actually making the boom shorter. i've had best results cutting with a plumber's pipe cutter, to be sure new ends are square.

[Kimba]

Hi All,
As per a private email to Carlos the mould/jig was to translate the position of the original holes perfectly. Alternatively, the holes could be marked out carefully and drilled using a drill press to stop the drill
"wandering" off centre.

X9 Tail Tube Sizing:
I have a 180 and 200 X9 also and checked the lengths of the large diameter end of the boom(that sleeves the tail) and found the 180 & 200 are from the same tooling and the 225 & 260 are from the same tooling( as far as the start of the larger diameter tail goes). Or to put it another way the 200 has about 80cm of tail tube( and can be cut down to the 180) and the 260 has 100cm (and can be cut down to 225). I ended up cutting a 260 down to 230 to allow for a range of adjustment on a 9.5.
Regards, Tim.