Christmas hols and not a lot of wind! Time to carry out some kit repairs. AL360 boom clips cost over 10 euros each. Local dealers don't stock AL360 spares, so you have to pay an 18 euro charge for shipping direct from Italy. Pretty expensive. So after a couple snapped on me, I thought I'd have a go a making a temporary repair, I've ordered a couple if replacements, but it'll take a couple of months before they arrive. Turns out the repair is pretty strong and more permanent than I thought. These things only seem to snap when rigging up on the beach, so I might even wrap a layer or two of carbon on all my boom clips just to make them last longer. The picture explains all.

great idea !

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mark62 said..
Christmas hols and not a lot of wind! Time to carry out some kit repairs. AL360 boom clips cost over 10 euros each. Local dealers don't stock AL360 spares, so you have to pay an 18 euro charge for shipping direct from Italy. Pretty expensive. So after a couple snapped on me, I thought I'd have a go a making a temporary repair, I've ordered a couple if replacements, but it'll take a couple of months before they arrive. Turns out the repair is pretty strong and more permanent than I thought. These things only seem to snap when rigging up on the beach, so I might even wrap a layer or two of carbon on all my boom clips just to make them last longer. The picture explains all.

An expensive boom with crap clips and they want you to pay for replacements? they should be free of charge. great work though, maybe you should bill them for your workmanship.

There seems no end to the supply of windsurfing equipment let down by shoddy nickel and dime design decisions. Dodgy clips, Toys R Us plastics, ferrous metal components for marine applications... It makes no sense at all.

Nice but eventually the pins break out of the plastic, much of the cracking is caused by dodgy stainless pins rusting & expanding in the plastic. Unfortunately one of windsurfings consumables

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mkseven said..
Nice but eventually the pins break out of the plastic, much of the cracking is caused by dodgy stainless pins rusting & expanding in the plastic. Unfortunately one of windsurfings consumables

AL360 use Brass or Bronze, chrome plated I believe.
Have seen them not chrome plated as well.

316 Stainless "Marine Grade" will also corrode if left in still salt water, there needs to be some flow over the surface, a bit hard inside a plastic injection moulded item.
Water gets in due to the flexing of the plastic etc.

Not sure why all manufacturers don't just use CuNi or Duplex, both very good corrosion resistance.

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AUS 808 said..

mkseven said..
Nice but eventually the pins break out of the plastic, much of the cracking is caused by dodgy stainless pins rusting & expanding in the plastic. Unfortunately one of windsurfings consumables

AL360 use Brass or Bronze, chrome plated I believe.
Have seen them not chrome plated as well.

316 Stainless "Marine Grade" will also corrode if left in still salt water, there needs to be some flow over the surface, a bit hard inside a plastic injection moulded item.
Water gets in due to the flexing of the plastic etc.

Not sure why all manufacturers don't just use CuNi or Duplex, both very good corrosion resistance.

Dead right, they are brass twin pins. My three AL360 E3 Slalom booms are the older versions. Had them since 2010/2011. One pin (the 200-270) has had a snapped leaving just one pin left, still using it as a single pin whilst waiting for a replacement part from AL360.

I'm happy with this small breakage as the booms are 7 to 8 years old and metal fatigue will set in at some point or other. The real weak link seems to be the plastic its self, hopefully the carbon layer will extend its life by a couple of years.

The X-Booms adjuster clamp looks very simple, but effective and easy to replace/upgrade the velcro strap. I like the "lack off things to break" on it.............