
9610 Commonwealth Ave., Jacksonville, FL 32220
Stripping Biscuit's Boom (1-20-25)
Jan 20, 2025
I had a bit of time to run out to the shop, and with the low temperatures I decided to get started on restoring the mast and boom - today's task was to strip the boom.
There were a number of fittings on the boom. By the way, Rig Rite has a really great site dedicated to a number of one-designs, the CD Typhoon being one, and supplies many replacement parts. The "Spartan CD1" boom is the particular boom I am working with here. From the outhaul to the gooseneck, the fittings were laid out as a small cleat, a small jam cleat, a cheek block, a fairlead, a boom bail, and finally another small cleat - 6 fittings to be removed. The fasteners used were a combination of, mostly random, phillips head and slotted head stainless steel screws, as well as aluminum rivets. The machine screws were doused with PB Blaster, allowed to penetrate, and then removed with the help of an impact driver for the slotted screws and by hand for the phillips head screws. The rivets were drilled out and pushed into the interior of the boom. As I removed the individual fittings I followed with a bit of hand sanding to clean up the mounting surfaces. The boom will receive a fresh hand-sanding session just prior to application of a tie-coat primer. The aluminum surface quickly begins to form an oxidation after fresh aluminum exposure, and this oxidation becomes a contaminate to paint application.
The gooseneck and outhaul fittings were by far the most difficult to remove. Both of these fittings were secured to the boom with three short stainless steel fasteners - say 3/8" in length self-tapping screws. I liberally applied PB Blaster to each of the end fittings, and allowed time for penetration by working on the interior fittings. I had one head sheer off for each of the end fittings, but worked hard with the impact driver to remove the other four screws. I was able to remove the gooseneck fitting, but not before the tack pin structure decided to part from the body of the gooseneck itself - an order for a new gooseneck with tack replacement has already been ordered from Rig Rite.
The outhaul remained stubborn to the end, and so it was left with a zip-lock bag around it, liberally doused with PB Blaster, and the zip-lock bag wrapped tightly to keep from drying out - hoping the fumes will help in penetrating the corrosion. The metal-to-metal contact, and subsequent corrosion, is believed to be contributing to the unyielding nature of the outhaul. More to come....
Total Hrs: 2.5








