## Keep the Boom from Swinging 

## Carl, Horizon Cat & Picnic Cat 

I'm afraid I've fallen out of touch, both with the good people here and with sailing. In fact, last night I awoke to a terrible nightmare about sailing – better than nothing, I guess. If it was a nightmare at least it was sailing, and I think I got a good idea from it. The last time I was on a boat outside of daydreams was September '09. Before that June '09. Before that, I think I remember '08 was a good year for sailing. 

Anyway, I dreamed I awoke on board my Horizon Cat sometime in the pitch black wee hours, lost, position unknown and waves giving my boat a toss in the otherwise calm conditions. It seemed so real. I had potable water, Rama noodles, and a bag of those Cape Cod potato chips with the catboat weathering the light – I wasn't in immediate peril but those waves presaged approaching PWC's. In minutes I would be caught in their maelstrom. I had to act fast. 

Something had to keep the boom from swishing across the bimini, and I couldn't find the bit of 3/16 line I always keep in my pocket. One problem with Com-pac's double ended sheet is that if the boom is held up off the gallows by a topping life or lazy jacks, the sheet won't keep the boom from swinging back and forth. In the past I've kept the boom under control with a constrictor knot (or, better yet, a boa) just under the boom mainsheet block, seizing all the parts of the mainsheet fall. It works well, but a constrictor will work loose and a boa takes some fussing. And I couldn't find my favorite length of 3/16 line. 

Working fast in my dream, dreading what fate could deal by the hands of PWC pilots, I tied two stopper knots in the sheet, one on each side of the boom triple block. 

For the first stopper, I followed the starboard end of the sheet through the cleat, up to the boom, and over one sheave of the triple block. That's where I tied the first stopper, on the opposite side of the block from the starboard cleat. With the stopper in place, hauling the starboard end of the sheet brought the stopper up to the block, pulling the boom to starboard. 

The second stopper went on the opposite side of the block on the part that came up from the port cleat. Hauling the portside end of the sheet now pulled against the stopper and pulled the boom to port. Caught between the stoppers like a snake caught in a knothole by boiled eggs, the boom couldn't flop around. In my nightmare I was ready for the PWC's. 

This morning I drove over to the storage yard and tried the idea out. I think it will work, although a test with the boom up out of the gallows and suspended by the lazy jacks will have to wait until I get the boat wet again. Here are the stoppers, before pulling them chockablock: 

