Drilling for Boom Fittings

Over the 24th and 25th of May, I laid out the boom fittings, marked their locations, and drilled holes for machine screws. Since I had decided to go ahead and paint the boom (still undecided on the mast...I want to go sailing), I took the opportunity to replace some badly worn cheek blocks, the outhaul and gooseneck, the vang, and a couple fairleads. The boom has been sanded down to bare aluminum, the old fitting holes have been counter-sinked, filled with thickened epoxy (407 fairing filler and colloidal silica), and sanded fair to the boom's surface.

In the picture below, I am laying out the fittings, referring to a diagram I made of the boom prior to removing the original fittings. The process for drilling new holes, which will ultimately be tapped for stainless machine screws, was applied to two cheek blocks, the gooseneck cap, the outhaul cap, one vang, three lashing hooks, five fairleads, and three small cleats.

In this picture it is clear to see the old fitting holes filled with epoxy, and the new fitting holes marked for drilling. In this particular picture, I have drilled for a new cleat (left) and about ready to drill for a new cheek block. The process that I followed for drilling the news holes was fairly straight forward: find the location on the boom for the fitting, mark screw holes with a thin tip sharpie, center punch each screw hole to prevent the drill bit from 'walking', and drill with appropriate bit.

Here is a close-up of the old and new screw holes for one of the fairleads. You can see that I have just drilled one of the holes, and the other exhibits the center punch depression to prevent the drill bit from wondering across the boom's surface.

Here is the new outhaul cap - prior to drilling of new screws holes.

Here is the new gooseneck, shown with reefing hooks - again, prior to drilling of new screw holes. The outhaul and gooseneck were purchased through Dwyer Aluminum Mast Co.