Broken Tap

I feel like I dodged a bullet. In my eagerness to mount the lazy jack hardware, I started mounting padeyes into the bottom of the boom. We have a Selden boom, and it has our reefing lines inside the boom along with some blocks that give us 2:1 purchase when reefing. I thought if I cut the fasteners down so that they were just inside the aluminum, I wouldn't run into any of the internal reefing controls. On the second hole of the first padeye, I broke the tap inside the boom. To make matters worse, the broken tap prevented the second reefing line from moving. The tap broke flush to the surface, so there was no way to get it out by reversing. Finally, I had the idea of pulling on the reefing line really hard to dislodge the tap. It worked. When I pulled the line out of the boom, I could see the tap had gone into the line, but not the blocks. I didn't want to leave the tap in the boom, so we coaxed it out with a magnet, since the boom is aluminum and the tap hardened steel.

I think if I continued mounting the padeyes, I may have done permanent damage to the boom. Luckily, I had the idea to contact Port Townsend Rigging. The folks at Port Townsend Rigging suggested a boom slider that goes in the bottom groove of the boom. That way, I don't have to drill any holes and compromise the internal reefing system.