[Public-list] Measured mast/boom length, Alberg 30 Quiz

[Michael Connolly]

Hello,
Last Saturday I spent a delightful day meeting Dan Walker - #145 Rascal and looking at each others boats.  It is still amazing to me that here are two Alberg 30's within 18 miles of each other in land-locked central Indiana!!  If stories counted ................we must have sailed a thousand miles that day..........very pleasant.
 
Dan helped me measure my mast and boom.  These dimensions are for the aluminum extrusions only; mast 34' 9-1/4" boom 14' 3".
 
Now for the Quiz.  When anyone these days purchases an Alberg 30 the new owner always gets a box of "mystery stuff".  Sometimes the seller is forthright and tells you where it is and sometimes it is a surprise 'find' discovered months after you get the boat home.  In Dan's "mystery stuff" box were many items most of which we could identify. 
 
One item stumped us.  Attached is a pict.  This is a very nicely hand made 'Gadget'.  The white u-shaped section is a sandwich of two aluminum plates and epoxy resin, then wrapped with white vinyl tape.  The rollers are of the polyurethane non-marking type, spaced about 3/4" apart and do not rotate.  A shackle is attached at the apex of the u-shape.
 
All suggestions of what this might be are welcome.  Please keep your responses clean as our children read this list.
 
Michael
#133 Lorrie Rose