Practical Boat Owner - July 2018

I pinched this idea from the

Figaro class (short-handed

ocean racing yachts). My

topping lift is led aft from the

base of the mast, but I did not

want to drill extra holes for the

Having been almost run down
by a container ship in the Black
Deep, in the outer Thames
Estuary, I’ve fitted an Echomax
active radar responder plus an
AIS transponder.
The AIS is less for notifying
ships of my position, more so I
can see them and have details
of their course and speed. It
also tells my wife via Marine
Traffic Online where I am. Ships
have called me up from time to
time, as have the coastguard
and Dover port control.
The Echomax has a switch
which when turned on in less
populated waters will bleep
when painted by radar thus
alerting me to the presence of
another vessel.
I have not found the need to
place either unit up the mast,
choosing instead to place them
on smaller ‘mastlets’ mounted
on the pushpit.
To save the cost of stainless
steel for the mastlets I came up
with the solution of using a
redundant extending sailboard
boom. These extending booms
have many excellent qualities:
they have fairly long straight
sections; they are much thicker
than the standard 25mm

‘Floating’ jammer

controls Sam

Longley’s topping

lift and means he

hasn’t had to drill

any extra holes in

his yacht’s deck

One half of a black neoprene-

covered sailboard boom

clamped to the pushpit rails

The curve built in to the

adapted sailboard boom

means cable runs down inside

the boom and straight through

the deck gland

Echomax and AIS aerial masts

Sam Longley makes two masts out of a boom

Sam Longley avoids drilling holes

stainless steel tubing; the

anodized aluminium is excellent

quality and the bottom section

is covered in neoprene.

No expensive fittings were

required to fit the booms to the

pushpit: a pair of large U-bolts

for each from the Proboat range

fitted diagonally across the

junction of pole and pushpit did

the job perfectly – one arranged

diagonally one way and the

other at 90° to it.

By leaving a small amount of

the curve of the boom at the

Floating jammer

jam cleat, so I wrapped a

Dyneema cord around the

winch base and spliced it to an

aluminium plate via two

stainless steel thimbles.

Holding the front edge is a pair

bottom end, the tube curves in

to the deck gland so the wire is

not exposed at the bottom but

instead passes down the inside

and straight down into the deck.

My AIS aerial wire terminates

down below at the AIS control

box next to my VHF set. In the

unlikely event of a dismasting I

have the same end fittings so

I can swap aerial wires to the

VHF in a few minutes.

of thin lines, which are clamped

under a couple of the existing

cleats. Under the alloy plate I

have fixed two small rubber

door stops to prevent the nuts

marking the deck. A cam cleat

is bolted to the plate, and

there’s an eye on the ‘out’ side

to stop the line jumping off.

It all lines up with the winch so if

I needed to take a turn for extra

power, I could.