my M17, a 1983, has stainless rivets for the hardware on boom and mast that are holding just fine. The prior owners of the 17 kept her on a buoy in Quartermaster Harbor, Vashon Island, Puget Sound for nine months a year for over 20 years ... plenty of saltwater soaking. the hardware on my old M15, a 1984, was also SS and just fine (though sheet was dry stored and spent at least half her life in Utah). the issue with aluminum is it isn't as strong as stainless. is this an issue for the M15 and M17? lots of heated debate about this on this listproc three or so years ago. a challenge when using stainless is most hand riveters don't have the strength to 'pop the rivet. at Sage Marine i use a pneumatic pop rivet gun when building the Sage 17 and Sage 15 masts & booms. Jerry converted the Glesser's M15's boom to a internal 2:1 outhaul. works great. internal frees up space on the boom (small booms on these small boats). the outhaul is really only effective with a loose foot main ... just too much resistance to adjusting draft when the main has a bolt rope foot. I'm going to be building a new boom for an M15 owner in December with a 2:1 outhaul (boom to be delivered at the Wrinkleboat Ran-Tan in January). i will be taking pictures and detailing the project on the Sage Marine blog; or i could take pictures of the Glessers' boom to give you an overview on how to convert a boom built by Jerry 'back in the day'. here is a link to how the Sage 17 boom is put together, including the outhaul - https://sagemarineblog.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/building-a-boom/ -- :: Dave Scobie :: former M15 owner - www.freewebs.com/m15-named-scred :: M17 #375 SWEET PEA - www.m17-375.webs.com
On 10/21/2015 01:39 PM, Tyler Backman wrote:
I am planning to add an outhaul and second reef point hardware to my M15, and have some questions:
-What is the recommended way to mount hardware to the boom? I don't want to have stainless rivets fail from galvanic corrosion. I've thought about using plastic shoulder bushings and bolts, but that wouldn't let the hardware mount perfectly flush.
-Does anyone have hardware recommendations for the reef point and outhaul?
-Is an internal outhaul worthwhile?
Sincerely, Tyler Davis, CA M15 #157 "Defiant"