Frozen roller-reefing boom

[spin1012]

what is the best way to loosen a gooseneck (currently frozen from lack of use) on a sailboat to allow for roller furling of the main?

[Faster]

Originally Posted by spin1012

what is the best way to loosen a gooseneck (currently frozen from lack of use) on a sailboat to allow for roller furling of the main?

The best thing is not to worry about it and convert the sail to slab/jiffy reefing. The old boom/roller reefing was never very effective, there's no way to tension the outhaul and sail shape was awful, not to mention you often lost the vang while reefed.

For a few hundred dollars you can have proper reef point put into the sail and the hardware/rigging is simple to do. In the long run you'll be very glad you did.

btw.. welcome to Sailnet. I've moved your post to its own thread - you'll get more on-topic responses that way.

[baboon]

I will second faster's reply. My boat has an old roller furling boom, now converted to slab reefing. It works well, can be set up to be reefed from the cockpit (on the old system a crank had to be turned at the mast), and maintains sail shape well. It is simple and less likely to fail when you really need it.

[tytower]

Originally Posted by spin1012

what is the best way to loosen a gooseneck (currently frozen from lack of use) on a sailboat to allow for roller furling of the main?

You get into the moving parts with WD40 , Inox or some similar penetrant.Came across a mix of Auto Transmission Fluid and Brakefluid suggested as a cup of each mixed , also you can put some acetone with it if you wish.

Let it soak in some then try to move it just a bit ,Once you can get it to move even 1 mm then work it back and forth and put more fluid on it . Keep going until it turns all the way

[Ulladh]

I have a 1970's era roller reefing boom, it sort off worked if I rolled slowly and stretched the sail on the boom then secure a new line to the next grommet on the leech. This all took to much time and the sail was tired, so I now have a new mainsail with reef points and use the rolling boom for rolling the sail for storage when away from the boat for more than a week or two.

After you get it free with WD40 use a few drops of machine oil every few weeks. The mechanism probably predates more exotic lubricants.