I was out sailing in about 20 knot winds just outside of San Diego Bay, when suddenly my boom separated from my mast at the gooseneck and the boom end casting/plate. The only thing holding up my boom was now the sail, which was already starting to show the stress of the high winds where the sail slides into the boom. I literally thought the sail was going to tear at any momement, bringing the whole rig down.

I immediately headed directly into the wind, and lashed my boom to the mast to keep her elevated, and then lowered my sail. My four guests and children had no idea what was going on until I told them upon our return to the marina (I can't believe nobody caught on)!

At any rate, I was convinced that I was going to have to get a rigger and spend thousands of dollars to repair the damage/re-attach the boom. As it turns out, I was able to re-attach the boom to the mast myself, and for a couple of bucks no less (the cost of a bag of three cotter pins)!

All I did was loosen the outhaul, unscrew the black boom end plate, use a chisel and hammer to pop it out of the boom, fish out the washer that was held in by the old cotter pin that sheared off, push the pin back through the boom plate, put the washer back on (there is a washer at both ends, inside and outside the boom plate), put the cotter pin back in to hold the washer in place on the inside, re-insert the boom plate, screw it back in to the boom, and voila!...I was ready to go sailing again. It was literally that easy!

Thought I'd go out of my way to share my story, as this is bound to happen to someone else. That cotter pin assembly is quite flimsy when you consider the forces pulling and torquing on it.

All the best--Joel S.