Hi Folks,
I've just purchased a couple of very new looking Fibrespar booms through the Buy & Sell. I've never used the Twist Lock system before. Can anyone advise? How tightly do you have to do them up? Any tips from experienced hands would be greatly appreciated. Or if anyone has a set up manual PDF that would be even better....
Cheers, Jens
The twist locks have to be twisted all the way to the stop and make sure that the twist lock lip is in the tail piece grove.
Avoid pulling in and out the tail piece with sand on it and if you mainly use one sail, leave it in that position rather than pushing it in or the plastic will wear quickly.
Once the twist lock slips when you sail, it is usually stuffed from that time on and you will have to replace it.
You can still buy kits( i think?) as the twist lock was used by np (I think?).
I replaced several and was it was easy. The grip and front end was a pig of a job to replace as I did both.
On the boom tailpiece, the plastic outhaul cleat wears through the carbon after a while so you may have to build it up again with glass and epoxy resin.
On the boom front end, the plastic clamp comes off with a few allen keys, it doesn't hurt to check for cracks and clean out the sand from time to time.
I used them for years and the single best bit of advise I can give you is when you see replacement twistloks kicking around a shop, buy as many as you can. Your going to need them. Apart from that, they are a really good boom. Did you get the older ones or the newer ones with the tiger stipey thing?
Hi Dan,
I got the eye catching new ones with the stripes. Thanks for the Twist lock tip. It all looks a bit strange compared to the Chinook pin system I'm used to.
Cheers, jens
The twistlock concept was a great idea, just seemed like the plastic used was too soft. Another thing is to makesure they are in the groove properly before tightening. It only takes one time of doing it wrong to round the sharpe edge of the plastic then it's all downhill. What conditions are you taking it out in. Waves or flatwater?
Dan,
They are for wave sailing. My Chinook carbons are getting pretty old, so when I saw a good deal on these I took the plunge.
Cheers, Jens
The last one I had was the stripey one and one thing I noticed was the diameter was consistant thru the whole arm. I found this abit strange since the diameter of the tail was the same as the previous model (the previous model widened at the end to take the tail diameter inside). Upon closer inspection I noticed they had got around this problem by simply halving the wall thickness of the arm starting where your back hand sits, ingenious. I got a real good look at this section when the boom snapped in half right at that point during a topturn.
Hopefully this problem was rectified in later models, I haven't seen one since.
