[Public-list] Alberg 30 Quiz

[Gordon Laco]

Hi there - 

That thing is called a 'boom claw' and the sail rolls up inside it.  There
is no worry about sliding because that type of vang is meant to pull
straight down to a pad eye or stanchion base on the deck.   It was usefull
because you could move it along the boom so it pulled down from directly
over whatever you shackled the fall of the tackle too...and it also worked
as a preventer.  On the negative side, you had to adjust it every time you
moved the mainsheet - and while gybing you had no vang at all and could hang
the boom up on the backstay.

Re: Whitby Folkboats...yes they did build them - and they were distinctly
diff from the later Contessa 26.  Whitby started off importing wooden
Folkboats from Denmark (my beloved #16 Touch Wood among them) and got into
building with the glass versions of those terrific boats.  There was a large
fleet of them on Lake Ontario whose owners went to Whitby with a
specification for a larger boat that was to have similar sea keeping
qualities - the result was the Alberg 30.  But man o man I wish Whitby had
left the fractional rig and lead ballast! (sorry)  My uncle Con Costas built
rigs for both the Whitby Folkboat and the Albergs until he passed away in
'72.  He ran the rigging shop at Tom Taylor Co. which was then the largest
yacht outfitting operation in North America - I tried to fill his shoes
there from '80 to when they finally closed in '85.


Gord #426 Surprise




> George and Mike,
> Guess that it is pretty hard to stump either of you two.  I am curious, were
> these devices commercially available during the time our boats were newer or
> did owners have to custom make something like this to attach a vang?
> First thing I noticed about my boat is no vang.  I have boom roller furling,
> which is nice and convenient, I suppose.  Always wondered how to attach vang
> and still be able to furl.
> 
> What would keep the device in place on the boom?  Friction?  Would that not
> mess up the furled sailcloth?  Perhaps something is missing.
> Michael
> 
> George Dinwiddie <gdinwiddie at alberg30.org> wrote:
> Michael & Dan,
> 
> Not only are there two Albergs in the middle of Indiana, but their
> skippers both traveled to Annapolis to race on the same A30 on
> consecutive weekends.
> 
> The list is set to strip binary attachments, to prevent distributing
> viruses, so I've posted your photo at
> http://www.alberg30.org/maintenance/disorganized/RollerReefingVangAttachment.j
> pg
> 
> Recall that these boats originally used roller reefing rather than slab
> reefing. That means that you can't have hardware attached to the boom.
> In order to put a vang on the boom, you slid one of these contraptions
> down the boom with the sail in the slot between the "rollers." Then you
> could wind the main up on the boom within the circle.
> 
> - George
> 
> Michael Connolly wrote:
>> 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
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> 
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