Anyone ever shortened a boom?
I have an HPL 220 Race boom, which is a great boom (220-250). It has a Maui Sails head and is in good nick.
But now my largest sail is 9.6m with a boom length of 230.
My other boom is 160-220, which gets pretty flexy on my 8.6m (boom 217) which is a bit too small for the big boom.
I was thinking of taking 20cm off making it 200-230 for 7.5m - 9.6m. Or 10cm for 210-240 for 8.6-9.6.
Is this a stoopid idea? Anyone tried it?
Not stoopid. Smart people pay me smart money to do just that. 
I've seen your workbench - I'm sure you can manage it! 
I did it to a 300cm boom to bring it down a bit to be useful on the smaller sails as well as the biggest.
I also lopped a few cms off of a Chinook boom to make it useful on smaller sails.
It all worked well, so assuming you have good skills, go for it.
I would only shorten the book by 10cm.
Main reason is that it will remain a bit stiffer for the larger sail due to the arm and end piece overlapping.
The other point is that te boom might be too wide at the front to be usable for the 7,8 because the shape of the book will remain.
I did the same in the past and also added some information in the Starboard forum, maybe you see if you can find it.
~Shinobi
Paddymac, be sure that the extension will actually slide into the arm further up as sometimes the arms are tapered or there are plugs that may not be movable.
I too would like to take a few cm off my NP race boom,
I guess I need these; does anyone know where they may be available in Australia?
http://www.24-7boardsports.com/neil-pryde-trim-lock-double-for-race-boom/
Yep, took about 10cm off my HPL boom to fit my 8.6 and it works great and still fits my 11m.
whitelionwindsurfing.blogspot.com/2010/04/diy-booms-shortening-x9-boom.html
www.peterman.dk/windsurf-NP-X9-boom-shortening-1000.htm
They are a couple links I researched on the topic.
Cheers
Marty
Thanks mineral, MOB, sotired, shinobi, Paul K, fjdoug, AUS02, Marty, really appreciate all the responses. It's great to be able to leverage such an experienced Brain's Trust.
In particular, I'd like to thank sotired for Select to expand quoteso assuming you have good skills, go for it.
If only it were so
