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MobZ said..The pin on my one of those falls out if i tilt it sideways walking down the beach.
This is bad because the eyes are getting worse. I try to avoid wearing reading glasses rigging and cant see the numbers to put back in.
Second that.
I bought a Chinook one per pic above to replace a lost clip on an old Alu Simmer extension. I am not a fan of collar and pin type adjusters, as they seem to fall off, or the string pulls through or breaks.
It seems Chinook tried with this version to make one that didn't fall out; but the implementation is horrid, it is too big (although you can orient it with the pin inside if the extension holes are aligned that way) and due to heat or wear or whatever the plastic "clip" no longer keeps the pin in place after a while. I heated mine up gently and squished it to try to make it "clip" again, it works but I don't really trust it.
Like Mark Oz I am a fan of the Severne style clips (which are not exclusive to Severne but more on that below), not just because they can be adjusted one-handed and don't stick out much and damage the board, but because they stay on the extension when you derig and pull the extension out of the mast; provided they don't snag on the luff at the mast / protector and rip a hole in it or the rope netting pouch (never happened to us but I read about it here somewhere).
For foiling when waves are small, we quite often derig in the water and the pin and string and collartype (admittedly strong) often seemed to fall off the extension when the collar gets pulled up by the sail (when releasing downhaul), and depending on the sail orientation the bloody pin then sometimes drops out and you lose the thing. Or the string breaks or the knot pulls through either the pin or the collar.
If I was designing a pin/collar version I'd think of some way of a spring loaded locking mechanism under the collar, where you put the collar over the pin, it goes into a slot and you'd give it half a turn and it locks the pin in place. Not a plastic ridge, that would just wear too fast.
I liked the Severne style collars so much I changed my other extensions to that style (I recently bought a Severne extension). I say style as I discovered that the Severne pins, which also fit my Goya and Simmer extensions, are bigger than the pins on some other brands. As such it does not fit my Streamlined extension (which I dislike anyway), as it has smaller holes. I bought a generic one (maybe Unifiber) that has smaller pins. I know Simmer, Unifiber, Gunsails and Patrik all have models that use the one-handed collar type, not sure about the size.
I dislike the Streamlined for several reasons (1) mea culpa but the footprint of the bottom end is too small for my sensitive Neanderthal feet and swings away from me; the big clumpy plastic foot of my other extensions is not only much kinder to my feet but more robust (2) mea culpa again, didn't look close enough but as you cannot remove the collar like my other extensions for a zero setting, it stops at a minimum 6cm setting (3) The spring on the push button is really stiff, and with a small button hard to push especially with cold fingers. I dissembled it to try to weaken the spring slightly but no help; PITA to reassemble (4) The push button is proud of the surface, so they added a plastic shim under it which swivels back into place; I can see that destroying itself eventually and again . cold fingers (5) The final rope run into the cleat goes at a bit of a diagonal (yes I'm threading it correctly), but both engineering-wise and aesthetically it gets my goat. So all in all not an inspired purchase, and an expensive one. I somehow justified it to the wife that she can use it exclusively because it's light and streamlined. I'm not sure she believes me.
As regards the Severne style adjuster clips, the only downside is some variations have a cheap hinge (not mine but beware) that have a bit of metal that sticks out and can catch the luff sleeve; and the rubber "spring" wears out and breaks (and can get pulled off) - but bicycle tube works at a pinch and one bike tube will last a lifetime.
The worst extension I had (I sold it) was the Duotone one which has a plastic catch that you separate so you can rotate it and then clip it back together. Too fiddly for my liking, didn't look too robust either. It was worse than those ones that use a wire made of spring steel that sits in an aluminium groove and have an internally tapered collar that jams it in place. Solid system except even easier to lose the collar and moving the wire is not quite as easy as the Severne system.
Then there's the orientation of the cleat, Simmer, Goya and Streamlined all right-hand ones (mast to the right looking from the foot to top when rigging; Severne is left-handed (and if you buy their sails with cams (I only have one, for foiling) the mast needs to be on the left so the cam zip pockets are accessible. Why didn't I buy all the same handedness you may ask? Well, I got them at different times as the family expanded.
As you can tell I love mast extensions, beautiful little bundles of engineering; don't get me started on booms with issues with cracking clips (Mauisails), heads and grip, nor bases, whole other subject.
k.
(apologies for hijacking OPs thread a wee bit).
ryan14
> 9 months ago, 22 Feb 2024
