I have a question. Â Has anyone ever considered raising there boom to attach above the mast fold joint? to get more head room in the cockpit? or would that make the weekender more unstable?
As you can see in this pic I have plenty of room at the top of my mst for my sail to go up another foot at least. Â Just wondering if there is any kind of repercussions from doing it.
And if I made my stub any taller the boat would never fit in my garage. LOLÂ Â I have about 1/2" currently to spare.
The boom has been raised by many different builders, though the mast is usually lengthened under the hinge, which keeps everything in orientation with each other. In other words, raise the whole rig, mast, boom, sails, gaff, everything, by making the stub taller. Of course you'll need new stays and shrouds to suit the taller mast.
I've given this some thought in the past but I assumed by raising the center of effort, it would make the boat more tippy and easier to knock down. Is this not so? Perhaps it's not enough to be consequential.
As much as a foot wouldn't affect the stability curve all that much. It would be a measurable difference, but I don't think the average sailor, would sail a Weekender to a severe enough angles of heel, to really notice the difference. At most, it might mean you'd need to reef a MPH or two sooner then a stock height rig, but again this a pretty subjective issue, with the understanding that if you're thinking about a reef (regardless of wind strength), you probably should have one in by then.
The overall goal here is to increase headroom in the cockpit. In hindsight I should have made the seats lower but was wondering about the mounting of the boom above the tabernacle.
One option to consider is changing from a gooseneck fitting on your boom to boom jaws (like the gaff jaws). You would need a down-haul (perhaps on the front of the mast) to have the boom end up where you want it.
I can't tell from your picture if you have reef points in your sail or not (a good idea regardless) - but if you reefed your sail by the amount you want to raise the boom and then hoisted with boom jaws installed you could do it without changing your mast or recutting your sail.