russh said...

I must say that the North boom is tougher than my ribs and my best attempt at breaking it with a blown wave jump and landing on my boom broke rib number three quite nicely - the ten beers and a hand full of painkillers worked well on Saturday night - into Sunday but by Monday ouchewawa and a visit to the quacks revealed all!!

(at least I'll get at least another 6 weeks out of this boom while I am in dry dock)

My sympathies russh, it will be at least a couple of weeks before you can roll over in bed without waking up in serious pain

Ouch (rolling over in bed, laughing, hicoughing... so many ways to find how bad your ribs are)


Back on topic
I have a Hydrodynamix ally boom. Front finally broke (it had done >3000kms), Paul at Hydrodynamix fitted a new front end for me for a very reasonable price. Result: one happy Evets.

If you go for ally I recommend Hydronamix. The fact they are sourced by an australian who gives great customer service meant I made the right choice.

ok now let's talk about the differrence between Np X3 and X6, lets say180-230cm
both the same diameter, however the X6 is 100g heavier. Personally I just don't see the point of the hybrid assembly. If you want stiffness go for all carbon. From an engineering point of view I really can't see that the tail piece in carbon is going to offer much, if any more stiffness, I think it's just a nice piece of marketing. To get picky one really needs to mount both booms to a bench and load test them, or can anyone verify the difference in feel?

brad1 said...

ok now let's talk about the differrence between Np X3 and X6, lets say180-230cm
both the same diameter, however the X6 is 100g heavier. Personally I just don't see the point of the hybrid assembly. If you want stiffness go for all carbon. From an engineering point of view I really can't see that the tail piece in carbon is going to offer much, if any more stiffness, I think it's just a nice piece of marketing. To get picky one really needs to mount both booms to a bench and load test them, or can anyone verify the difference in feel?

I've not used the pryde's but can comment on the prolimit hybrid vs standard. The hybrid is an improvement but I feel this is mainly noted by heavier sailors who notice less draft movement in gusts, so unless you sail quite powered up you wont notice a great deal between the two. Personally I have quite a few booms, but generally if I go over the half way point on the extension I will use a carbon back end. Looking at my carbon, hybrid and alu booms when sailing it isn't so much the back end that bends rather the rear of the front section, the carbon backend reinforces that area better. But yes beefing up one part such as using stiff carbon extension tubes moves the weak spot to either the aluminium arms or the bend in the carbon back end.

For the prolimits the carbon backends also have the pulley system set up for adjustable outhaul whereas the standard aren't suitable.

I don't know about those booms from Italy, there are a few design features which point towards a stiffer boom, most of these can be seen on the Mauisails carbons:
Backend- as said above alot of flex occurs at the bend point, this is reduced by widening the curve or going to a reinforced non-curved section such as the mauis.
Main section tubes- stiffened by thicker tubes, larger diameter tubes or elongated tubes.
Front end- monocoque, wider more progressive curve.
The italian booms feature a few of these and do look good, but I don't know whether they would be more durable than other booms. Dunky doesn't sail formula and that is where I would be looking to see which booms last.

Sepp said...

By far the most durable booms are the new AL360 carbon booms from italy. Even "the destroyer" Björn Dunkerbeck was not able to break one so far. Some other PWA surfers are also using these booms this year. Check this site www.al360.it

Well, it is the best boom BUT also by far the most expensive. My slalom boom 190-245 cost me some 820 Euro. And it's still quite difficult to find a dealer here in europe. I guess it's almost impossible to get one down in AUS.

Believe me, once you have such a boom in your hands, you want to have one. The grip area has 29mm and a special kind of oval shape, front and rear area of the tube is beefed up to some 40mm in diameter and there are no holes drilled into the aft telescope tubes, they are all moulded. So there cant get any water inside the boom like at my X6 and X9 booms.

Joe

McAfee just found trojans in temp internet files from that link..... hmmmm

Have looked at the booms (on the site) before (without any virus warnings!) and they look good. I like the idea of an oval shaped tube because one could expect smaller feeling grip for the same stiffness in the plane the boom typically distorts.

Got my AL360 E3 190-245 full carbon slalom boom yesterday. Due to the length the weight is on the heavier side but comparable to that of a X9 200-250.

I'll take some pics at the weekend.

Just picked up my new prolimit assault boom (full alloy but im making it a hybrid), thought it was identical to last years as the graphics are unchanged but on unwrapping it there have been a few changes.

Backend is now slightly wider curve and the roller fitting has been added to the alloy backend, whilst never a problem with wavesails it is welcome for racesails and adjustable outhaul systems.

Frontend has changed again- last year they improved it significantly by beefing up the wrap around bit and added a clip-on attachment for rdms. I always found that it slipped on rdm masts and promptly threw it in the pile of junk. This year they have extended the section that sits on front of mast and the rdm attachment is about 1cm smaller diameter than previous year so it should work well.

lee1972 said...


Has anyone had any experience with the Aeron booms, im looking at up grading my prolimit ali .

Just bought an Monocoque Aluminium Aeron recently and I have to say great boom. Very versatile too - you can gybe it either palm down or palm up

mkseven said...
Dunky doesn't sail formula and that is where I would be looking to see which booms last.

I reckon Dunkerbeck going over the bars and 40+ knots while hooked in would be a bit more of a test for booms than formula sailing.
I'd also put money on him using another brand of boom pretty soon!

does anyone in nsw stock these aeron booms??

timford said...

sausage said...

lee1972 said...


Has anyone had any experience with the Aeron booms, im looking at up grading my prolimit ali .

Just bought an Monocoque Aluminium Aeron recently and I have to say great boom. Very versatile too - you can gybe it either palm down or palm up

have 2 of them and they are bloody great!!

mkseven said...

I think you'll find dunky knows how to crash at 40knots, and that wouldn't tend to be hooked in. He'll use who pays him the most, and it doesn't matter how many he breaks so long as they last him to the end of a race.

Dunky doesn't have the aforementioned boom branded anywhere, so I'm not sure they are paying him. I think the only thing going through your mind when going over the bars at that speed is self protection, not the longevity of your boom.

HAS ANYONE GOT ANYTHIGN TO SAY ABOUT THE HYPERSONIC CARBON BOOMS? 162-222 ?

I'm not sure what you're reading. It looks like I said I "DIDN'T" think I'd go back to alloy!

I'll try and talk a bit slower for you swoosh. I think it's called 'queenslandish'!

Carbon booms, particularly the MauiSails one I have been using are awesome, no question.
The Severne alloy one I have been using for the past few weeks is exceptionally stiff for an alloy boom and a very comfortable shape... I love it. In fact I love it so much I'm questioning the benefit of getting another carbon boom. I guess the 2 things that would sway me is the smaller diameter of a carbon boom and the longevity of a carbon boom.
If you're questioning me selling a carbon in the first place, it is because I was changing brands from MauiSails to Severne.

I have just purchased and used an Aeron alloy - feels nice and stiff, love the profile - only time will tell if goes the distance - but it does give me confidence.

It has a clamp insert, so as to fit skinny masts, great feature. I would prefer to use the ezzy shim ,but I have a problem. Without the supplied areon insert, that is in SDM mode, I can't fit the clamp around my Ezzy RDM with c/w nolimitz shim.
Anybody else with this problem?

Still happy to use the Aeron with the supplied insert.

that's alright swoosh, I couldn't help have a dig at a queenslander after the footy on the weekend!