My Prolimit boge universal failed in the shore break recently.
I was holding the mast tip in the white water when board and rig separated.

Obviously rig separations are a pain and can be downright dangerous.

The boge failed by pulling the bolt through the plastic bottom of the boge.
I had a close look at it and there are 2 design issues here.

1) The webbing safety strap around the boge did absolutely nothing to stop the separation because of the way it is positioned with respect to the big washers on either end. If the strap went around the outside of the washers rather than under them then the strap would engage the washers in a separation. As long as the washers engage the pin on top and the bolt on the bottom there would be no separation.

2) The reason the bolt managed to pull through the plastic base was because the plastic base was already cracked by the pressure of corrosion. The bolt is held in the rubber boge by a swage on the end of the bolt. The swage appears to be brass. The bolt is stainless steel - dissimilar metals - galvanic corrosion - dumb design.

I don't know how you can tell before hand if a boge uni has been constructed this way. Maybe they all are.

I have had this problem with 2 unis in the last year,when I raised this with the shop I purchased them from he said that I was the first person who has had a problem that he can remember.I have now changed over to tendon joints and feel a lot safer.

I just changed to a prolimit boge from a NP tendon base... bleh.

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swoosh said...

I just changed to a prolimit boge from a NP tendon base... bleh.

I've just done exactly the same...

I can see what Notwal's talking about though, when it fails at that point the webbing's not going to do anything at all