The Walder® boom brake is a safety element, and if its installation is simple, a good implementation is essential to achieve its full effectiveness.
Even a controlled jibe remains a delicate and dangerous maneuver. The Walder® boom brake prevents injury and equipment damage. Being the skipper means having responsibility for the safety of all those on board – installing a Walder® boom brake makes sense as part of responsible skippering.
The Walder® boom brake brings sailing safety, comfort, and peace of mind…
Installing the Walder® boom brake is a snap – each device comes with full instructions on how to install and use your Walder® boom brake to best advantage.
As indicated by its name, a preventer locks and holds the boom in an unchanging fixed position – and in some cases, as a result, possibly causing damage to your boom, mast, or sail with a forceful and unexpected wind or wave change. In contrast, if your sail starts to luff, the Walder® boom brake allows your boom to travel in an easy and controlled manner. What ever your tack, with the Walder® boom brake rigged on your boom there is no longer need to venture out on a pitching deck to deploy, adjust, or remove boom control equipment. During either a controlled or an accidental jibe the Walder® boom brake completely controls the boom sweep across your deck.
Your Walder® boom brake needs no particular maintenance – just rinse it off occasionally with freshwater as you do with your sailboat. Be sure to ease off the line and rinse thoroughly in the grooves of the Walder® boom brake drum.
The Walder® boom brake is useful (and potentially life saving) not only in open ocean passages. It is just as needed when sailing in coastal and protected-waters. Consistency in your immediate wind or wave direction is rarely certain; land bluffs near coastlines can create shifting or gusty winds; sometimes there is even sea swell in reduced winds – all conditions in which accidental jibes happen.
We ship the Walder® boom brake world-wide. We can send it to your home address, to a friend’s address abroad, directly to the marina where your boat is located, or any address you designate that receives shipped packages.
Not at all. Line tension provides frictional braking force on your Walder® boom brake and, thus, controls the velocity with which the boom sweeps from one side of your boat to the other. More line tension = a slower, controlled swing; less tension = a quicker swing.
Absolutely. In addition to safe and smooth jibing, the Walder® boom brake allows you to stabilize your boom at whatever position you choose. Thus, the Walder® boom brake assists when you furl or reef the mainsail or simply cinch down the boom in port or at anchorage.
Not at all. Installing a Walder® boom brake on your sailboat is completely compatible with an already-rigged rigid boomvang. Your rigid boomvang need not be dismantled – simply rig your Walder® boom brake aft of the vang.
We recommend using a halyard-line flexible, prestretched line. Do not use a line whose diameter is too large for the drum grooves of your particular Walder® boom brake model.
Adjusting your Walder® boom brake is easily accomplished with the boom brake line that you have fed back to the cockpit of your boat. The tension on your Walder® boom brake line is adjustable without having to climb up on deck – under all weather and wave conditions you remain safely in your cockpit. Remember : more line tension = more Walder® braking force on the boom’s rate of swing; less tension = less braking force.
Yes – a Walder® boom brake properly deployed under your boom follows along with its movements under all wind directions.
The better choice of Walder® boom brake for a full-batten mainsail is the stainless steel double-guide model.
There could be several reasons if you find the braking force of your Walder® boom brake is proving too powerful :
Your line could be too large a diameter for the size of the drum grooves of your particular Walder® boom brake – use a smaller diameter line.
It could be that your line is too old, creating additional frictional braking force – change the line.
The line could be stiffened with accumulated salt – soak it overnight in fresh water.
Finally, you can eliminate one turn of your line around the grooved drum, keeping only two turns – a third turn is not always necessary.
