You guys know how brutal this Winter has been for us being stuck in Port due to harsh and unsafe weather conditions. Now that Spring has been giving us a glimpse of what is around the corner, it's time to get serious on our sail plan. We are so anxious to get our mainsail up for better sailing, but there’s been a few issues that has delayed putting it back on. Teal and I have been going back and forth on what our options are and being in more remote ports, we weren’t hip on the idea of jumping into a huge project. We had a few options to weigh in on with our boom. First off, it’s an old boom. I don’t know how old it is or how long it has been on this rig or our vessel. After some online sleuthing detective work on Teal’s part, he is almost 100% sure it is the original boom which makes it 27 years old. YIKES! Not only has it been modified over the years from the numerous owners, it’s also undersized and the length may have been extended (Big NO). This gives us the option of modifying it (yet again) and trying to make it function or buying a used boom and also modifying it to work with our sail configuration. The last option is one we toyed with, but at a greater cost to us and that is to have a new boom made specifically for us. I truly believe this chance meeting with John Koon was not actually a chance meeting. I think we were meant to meet him on our journey towards our sailing experience. He is a super neat and interesting guy who has a wealth of knowledge and experience. He not only went up our rig for fun, but he imparted some really great ideas and solutions for us. I think if Teal has his way, they would still be talking and swapping ideas and stories. Unfortunately, we were only able to spend a few hours with John before he had to start his 12 day passage towards Hawaii because, well, schedules. Man I hate schedules. Lol
