G'day all,i need to get a new boom. Last one was NP X3 which ended up badly out of shape. Not sure whether to stick with NP or try another. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I have always had great luck with Chinook Pro 1 alloy booms. They are about $200 and handle catapulting well. They are very stiff, solid booms for the price.
Unless your light and its a small boom your thinking about , i would go carbon. I got sick of bending alloy so went to carbon , havnt broke one yet. Mabee the X6 ?
I love my X9 225 ~ 255
and even more so my Unifiber 180 ~240 but i only use it up to 225 then i go to the bigger one.
Select to expand quoteDave K2010 said..
G'day all,i need to get a new boom. Last one was NP X3 which ended up badly out of shape. Not sure whether to stick with NP or try another. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Why not go with another one the same, at least you know what to expect.
Why do people stick with a brand when they have had a bad experience, or 2 or 3, they just keep going back for more.
Look around & choose a good quality boom, forget the bling.
I have an all carbon boom and it is excellent...
...except that the grip is falling off. Again. After being replaced.
Can you guess the brand?
I like the naish clamp head ....alloy or carbon ...it opens up like a jaw ...chinook also use this and Severne...it makes it so much easier to put the mast in . All three brands ......you swear they where made in the same factory 
Hi!
Two weeks ago I bought GunSails Advantage.(boom) I paid 130 US dollars. It is aluminium and strong enought. Carbon booms are expensive. Bye,
Agreed, carbon booms are much more expensive. I haven't felt the need to buy one either. If you do go to alloy, it is important to search for a boom that has the stiffest, thickest walls possible. Some alloy booms have thinner walls than others, and can be less stiff and weaker in the aluminum alloy than others.
I have only broke one alloy boom which was the Chinook Sport Boom. Broke it on a catapult on the 3rd session I beleive. I returned it for a credit and got the Chinook Pro 1 Alloy Boom, and I have never had a problem so far in the 6 years using it. The Pro 1 is stiffer and thicker in the inside walls than the Sport Boom is.
I'm kind of curious why carbon booms are more expensive than most carbon masts are?
Select to expand quoteMagic Ride said..
I'm kind of curious why carbon booms are more expensive than most carbon masts are?
Whilst carbon cloth is expensive & there is a fair bit in a mast , labour to fabricate a boom would be much higher, plus fittings
& demand, most dont have as many booms as masts
Re. alloy booms stiffest is not always best, my very first boom was chinook that lasted many years, not the stiffest. I then went chinook pro alloy which was stiffer & that broke after year or so. After that went a few second hand carbons which eventually broke after alot of use. Returned to alloy occasionally but each time only got about a year out of them. Bought new carbons & have been happy with each of them, touch wood only breaking one.
love severne booms as numbers are total length of boom so no maths required at the beach. been using them for last 5-6 yrs with no issues.
I changed to a carbon boom last season after bending too many Ali booms.
I found I needed to change my sailing style to accommodate the characteristics of the carbon.
I was also lucky enough to get given a Severne Metal boom which I've used over winter. I haven't found the transition between the 211 carbon and Severne Metal that different.
211 @ 160cm compared to the metal @ 250mm (
) weight wise I don't really notice.
Seems stiff and strong enough as I've had a catapult on it and I'm trying to do back loops and it hasn't bent yet.
I'm 90 kegs.
Select to expand quoteMagic Ride said..
Broke it on a catapult on the 3rd session I beleive. I returned it for a credit
When you smash the nose of your board do you ask for a credit?
How about when you smash your car?
Booms are not designed for catapulting, alloy or carbon 
Aus808,
Booms may not be specifically designed for catapulting, but they should be able to handle it.
Anyone who windsurfs, catapults. Just the name of the game. It happens, we all do it. Booms are built for all for the aggressive style of what windsurfing is. Now if you put too much strain in a certain area, yeah it's gonna fail eventually. You got to be realistic here.
A boom should handle many catapults before it fails, if not you need to ask around and research a good solid boom and know your equipment well and you shouldn't have an issue.
My current alloy boom has about 15 catapults in over 6 years time in it so far and it's still going strong.
Good luck mate!!
Carbon. You will thank yourself in 10 years time, when its still solid and you didnt need to swim 2 k's back to shore.
Carbon has a great deal of tensile strength over alloy. But tensile strength will only benefit you with its wonderful characteristics of superb stiffness, but I'm not convinced that carbon will hold up any better on impact than alloy. Carbon usually would crack and break off when something impacts it hard enough. Alloy would bend and break off if something impacts it hard enough. From a strength perspective, carbon is much stronger than alloy, but from an impact perspective, I don't know if carbon would hold up anymore than alloy would. What do you guys think? Do you guys really think that a carbon boom could survive a high impact catapult any better than alloy?
Stuthepirit,
What do mean when you said when you changed to a carbon boom, you had to change your sailing style? Just curious.
^^^^^
^^^^^
Absolutely , you bet , cost three times as much though. But after killing three alloy you still pay for the carbon one. So you may as well start with the carbon.
Select to expand quoteMagic Ride said...
Stuthepirit,
What do mean when you said when you changed to a carbon boom, you had to change your sailing style? Just curious.
With the stiffness and responsiveness I had to adjust my stance a little and also harness line length especially with freeriding sails with the boom extended. Not much but a change none the less.
I must just ease the load carefully when I catapult then. I'm 178 pounds or so. I think I'm right in the middle between light and heavy weight. But I do try to lighten the load off the sail if I can. I catapult about 2-5 times a season. I get about 40-50 full on plaining sessions a season. Only broke that one boom like I said after 3 sessions. The company I bought it from felt that boom had a defect, if it broke the 3rd time out. That was nice of them to credit me. After only breaking one boom in 13 years, I haven't felt the need to get a carbon boom I guess. I usually end up getting a new alloy boom every 6 years, because the grip starts to wear and the alloy could have a week spot after all the use, plus the price is right, and I have Peace of mind with a brand new boom every 6 years. So far I feel I get my money's worth out of it. Don't know if I would feel comfortable buying a carbon boom and using it for 10 plus years. I'd be worried it would break after a while, especially after spending so much money on one, I'd want to keep it for a while.
carbon is a product that resists fatigue extremely well. Its incredibly strong for its weight.
Look at a crash by a F1 car and see how its survives the impact. While car companies are now using alloy chassis for strength/stiffness & more importantly a weight reduction, the top end will use carbon if their market can afford it, for strength/stiffness & weight.
Some background in regard to bicycles and the change from steel frames to alloy to carbon. [Tubes like booms]
Pro track riders & even very strong legged fellows would bend their lovely Reynolds Chrome molly531 frames all the time. No real issue, in that you would just re-straighten them again, a bit like taking the car in for an alignment. Then Alloy frames, stiff, hard riding, still dented/bent in a crash or broke [I broke a Cannondale while racing downhill], and then along came carbon.
For riders the frames weren't really lighter than alloy [or steel], but they were so stiff & strong the riders went faster & they didn't bend out of shape, so they lasted longer. The carbon just didn't fatigue like the others materials did, it was more comfy to ride & you could mould it in fancy shapes too! Yes, hit it hard enough, it can fracture and snap, I've heard of metal reinforcement [Ti?] , a bit like adding rio to concrete. Crush or break you can just sand it back & fix it too. In the 90s, I took 3 early Look carbon frames & made one bike out of them with some carbon tape & vinyl ester resin...you could take a seat stay and jump on it, on the edge of a step & not break it.
As you might guess I love carbon, and in most circumstances it will just out last everything else...
so while I've used a chinook pro alloy for a few years & I think its very good, I've just ordered a Aeron carbon for the bigger sails [8.5 & up].
Blazing928,
Very interesting, educational post. I enjoyed reading it. Those Aeron carbon booms do look pretty slick looking. I love carbon as well, just wish the price matched up more with the cost of a carbon mast. Oh well, I will just have to stick with the Pro 1 alloy boom for now, I've had great luck with them.
If you lack size and strength a carbon boom will be especially better than alloy.
I used my 170-230 cm Maui wave carbon boom the other day in 20-35 knots with my 5m race sail.
Its clew length is 170cm. I had the boom set at 172 cm and it felt so much more solid and stiff than my other much shorter 145-190 cm Aeron carbon boom that I usually use with this sail. The wider front end clamp possibly helped too.
If you can afford it,buy a carbon boom,there's no going back!
You can cheat now ...you can get a alloy front with a carbon rear end ...pro limit ..hybrid ..just as a eg.they are a reasonable price .
i use to go through a alloy boom every two - 3 years .i know I'm ruff ..I bend them ..or sail a lot ....now I have a carbon boom. 6 years now and still going strong .
The fittings are alot nicer on a carbon boom ,not to mention the extra drive you get out of your sail .
If you can afford it ,go carbon .you will have it for years ..I have a naish .which is identical to the Severne.6 years ago .
Select to expand quoteTardy said..
You can cheat now ...you can get a alloy front with a carbon rear end ...pro limit ..hybrid ..just as a eg.they are a reasonable price .
I've always wondered about those.... what's actually the point ?
Booms always break at the front (yet to see one with the rear end break first)
Would make more sense having carbon front and alloy rear 
But back to topic, get a full carbon boom !
I've broken every alloy boom i've ever owned within a year or so - pryde and north - 4 years since buying my enigma carbon wave It hasnt missed a beat - starting too look a little worn on the grip from reef and concrete abrasion- ill never go back to alloy - the direct power fromyour sails and stifness are a bonus - save up and do yourself a favour
Select to expand quoteMagic Ride said..
Aus808,
Booms may not be specifically designed for catapulting, but they should be able to handle it.
Anyone who windsurfs, catapults. Just the name of the game. It happens, we all do it. Booms are built for all for the aggressive style of what windsurfing is. Now if you put too much strain in a certain area, yeah it's gonna fail eventually. You got to be realistic here.
A boom should handle many catapults before it fails, if not you need to ask around and research a good solid boom and know your equipment well and you shouldn't have an issue.
My current alloy boom has about 15 catapults in over 6 years time in it so far and it's still going strong.
Good luck mate!!
I think AUS 808 knows what he is talking about,he used to make them
Well maybe he made booms that couldn't handle catiputs then. I have no idea who Aus 808 is, or how long ago he made booms, and what brand of booms did he make.
All I can say, is that most everyone on this site catapults from time to time and can guarantee most of their booms don't break every time they catapult. If they do break everytime they catapult, then something is wrong. Maybe they are excessively obese. That the only logical explanation for a boom breaking every time a sailor catipults. But the average weight windsurfers should rarely break booms when they catapult. That's a fact! We all rarely break booms, and that's because they are made well. I think if booms broke every time a sailor catipults, companies would have gone back to the drawing board years ago and reinvented the wheel, but that's not the case.
I never said that booms are designed for catiputing, I said that booms are built to handle catapulting, but of course will fail after enough catipults. That's the gray area, nobody knows when enough catipults will break a boom. The mystery of booms versus catipults.
Select to expand quoteMagic Ride said..
Well maybe he made booms that couldn't handle catiputs then. I have no idea who Aus 808 is, or how long ago he made booms, and what brand of booms did he make.
All I can say, is that most everyone on this site catapults from time to time and can guarantee most of their booms don't break every time they catapult. If they do break everytime they catapult, then something is wrong. Maybe they are excessively obese. That the only logical explanation for a boom breaking every time a sailor catipults. But the average weight windsurfers should rarely break booms when they catapult. That's a fact! We all rarely break booms, and that's because they are made well. I think if booms broke every time a sailor catipults, companies would have gone back to the drawing board years ago and reinvented the wheel, but that's not the case.
I never said that booms are designed for catiputing, I said that booms are built to handle catapulting, but of course will fail after enough catipults. That's the gray area, nobody knows when enough catipults will break a boom. The mystery of booms versus catipults.
I know one thing for sure, I wouldn't give you warranty for a broken boom caused by catapulting 
