How to Prevent Santana 22 Boom Losses

By Steve Seal

Seal's Spars and Rigging
1327 Sherman St.
Alameda, CA 94501
(510) 521-7730

Second only to mast losses on Santana 22's are boom losses. In the twenty plus years that I have been building masts and booms and rigging Santana 22's, I have built many new Santana booms and strengthened or reinforced many more. The key here is boom reinforcement. All the new booms I build are reinforced. This is an absolute must because the stock boom section that W.D. Schock Co. used when they built the boats is marginal at best.

Another thing that ends up weakening the boom is the boom vang strap. Most Santana booms were rigged with an external stainless steel boom vang strap. This external strap encourages salt water corrosion between
the stainless strap and the aluminum boom. What happens is, over time, the boom is severely weakened by corrosiuon underneath the vang strap, in the exact area where it is subjected to the highest loads by the boom vang.

So, what is the answer to keeping your boom from breaking?

  1. If your boom has an external stainless steel boom vang strap, remove it and replace it with an internal pad eye type of vang attachment.
  2. Reinforce the boom with 4' of internal tubing, tied into the internal vang pad eye.
This fix only adds about 1-1/2 lbs to the weight of the boom while adding considerable strength in the area where the boom is most highly stressed. It is relatively inexpensive to do. The cost of the parts is under $40. It can be done by anyone who is good with hand tools and has a rivet gun. Or I can do it in approximately 1-1/2 hrs time. Give me a call if you have any questions.