wilsowindsports said..

longboard said..
Seems like finding stock of the platinum miniboom is virtually impossible...

As far as I can deduct: the first offerings of the carbon version were crap. As mentioned on the forum the end caps shearing off etc.

Apart from the occasional tendency to take in water my aluminium mini boom has worked OK.
- I had to seal it with marine silicone myself, not really what I would expect from a brand like duotone.

Is the current "shortage" of the carbon boom due to duotone trying to re design it or is it just their way of quietly hoping everyone will forget it was ever an option...?

Despite my repeated efforts to reach duotone international directly - I have had zero response from them.
Not very encouraging customer service from thrir side hence my wondering exactly what the long term plan for the carbon mini boom is...

That said - I really enjoy the Slick.
I just wish duotone offered better support & comm's with their customers.

Duotone did have a small number of Mini booms get to Australia with incorrect Rivets and sealing plugs. We can retro fit these plugs and rivets if there are any booms still causing problems.

The Carbon booms have been in short supply as the problems with International manufacturing and Covid Lockdowns still seem to be causing major delays. We will do our best to get bigger numbers of Carbon booms arriving Aus as soon as possible.

I'm certainly not having a go at dealers in general here...it seems most retailers have gone above & beyond to resolve issues that may have arisen from obvious warranty issues...
And kudos to you guys.

Ive even been PM'd by a member of this forum offering help of his own accord which was a very kind gesture indeed.
Good to be a part of a community of like minded people who just want to get out on the water & enjoy our sport.

It seems that the shortfall in comms & support is from the duotone HQ & reps, in supporting of the the retailers - leaving the retailers to fix BS issues due to poor quality control in order to protect their reputations.
Very scetchy business ethics on the part of duotone HQ IMHO.

Again - thanks to the retailers who do all they can to help their customers with warranty issues.
It would be great if duotone sat up & took notice of their obvious product flaws & proactively played a role in fixing them instead of passing the buck...

Rant over...
Time to get back on the water - with my slick...

yes, you can cut down a mini boom and use the shorter attachment point for the boom. when using the standard length boom, you want to slide it through the 1st attachment point (and slide the back webbing to the side and then pass the boom end through to the 2nd attachment point. You want to do this so you lock down the strut bladder on either end of the cutout where your hands go.

The Carbon booms have been in short supply as the problems with International manufacturing and Covid Lockdowns still seem to be causing major delays. We will do our best to get bigger numbers of Carbon booms arriving Aus as soon as possible.

Two items:
One: both my aluminum mini-booms leaked. My USA dealer provided me with a plug kit. Drill out the rivet, insert plug into the big end, re-rivet. Easy once done once, but I puzzled over it quite a while not wanting to wreck my boom.
Two: I want to make a carbon boom, now that i've had my aluminum booms apart. A quick scan of Amazon canada showed a lot of carbon tubing and not expensive. It could take hours of analysis to figure out what (if anything) to order. Does anyone have a proven amazon or other link to carbon boom tubing that has proven out on the water? Failing this: diameter, wall thickness, etc. etc.

Hey I was thinking - I have an original aluminum Slick mini Boom (secondhand) coming so do you think it I could chop the ends from the original Boom & fit them onto a carbon paddle shaft so as yo make a custom light weight carbon mini Boom for the Slick?:-)

sunsetsailboards said..

Johndesu said..
Hey I was thinking - I have an original aluminum Slick mini Boom (secondhand) coming so do you think it I could chop the ends from the original Boom & fit them onto a carbon paddle shaft so as yo make a custom light weight carbon mini Boom for the Slick?:-)

your best bet would be to pop the rivets and use the plastic pieces. if you need to you can cut the old aluminum tube as shims/spacers, but if you just cut the tube at the ends of the plastic parts, you're going to have rivet ends inside that will limit how far you can insert the new carbon tube.

i would drill out rivets, measure everything out, then cut alu tube as needed for shims/adaptors, bond these parts together, and then reinstall plastic parts. the plastic tail piece has an inner section that extends ~17mm inside past the visible part on the outside. likely won't fit inside a smaller diameter tube, so for my small diameter boom, I cut the main tube to ~123cm and had a back adapter tube of 7cm, so I'd have ~5cm overlap after adjusting for the 17mm of plastic inside that won't go into the smaller tube.

Ok great thanks I will probably take your advice but 1st I need a get a pump, can you recommend a good Pump ?:-)

Mystic Kite Pump comes with a lot of adapters, including one for the Airport Valve for Duotones. It whistles a bit when inflating, but feels solid and works well. I also made Airport adapters for a friend. The 3D prints are PLA and TPE and they work well and are silent, but we've had some durability issues long term, especiallly in cold weather. The layer lines on the PLA just aren't holding enough on their own, so I'll start coating the adapters in epoxy or nail polish to see if that helps. I'll also look into using a different brand PLA.

I also made a miniboom. I mostly after a warmer grip material for cold weather winging, so I used natural cork from a craft store for the grip. I went cheap and just bought 25 mm (2mm wall thickness) aluminum tube from a hardware store. The end pieces are printed in PLA and are my own design. The cork was fine except for durability, so I coated it over with plastidip, but it still wore a bit faster than I like. The next step is to make a 110cm miniboom and use either thin EVA foam or cork and coat it with a polyolefin (heat shrink tube). I already used heat shrink tube near the ends and it actually feels great even when wet, so it might be a pretty good grip material.

If I find a good supplier for 25mm carbon tube in 125cm length, I'll probably make a carbon version. The first alu version is slightly heavier than the original silver miniboom (but then the parts cost about ?20, so it's a cheap prototype).

I 3D-printed a cap that goes inside the tube and then sealed it properly with hot glue, so the boom should be leak-proof.

i actually have some of that heat shrink fishing rod grip. very thin, but also a little bit heavy. 68g for the piece I have. My tubes themselves are something like 170g. Front end is 65g and tail plug is 13g

do people who use the shrink wrap grip find they want a little more cushion, or is it fine? can you shrink w/ a hair dryer or do you need a proper heat gun?

for cork grip, you might want to try cork/nitrile blend automotive gasket material. I hear it wears well and is tacky. Also twice as heavy as regular EVA foam grip. 112g for 10cm by 91cm but also nice thinness at 1.5mm

For the heat shrink tube I had, my hair dryer felt a bit sluggish even for the small segments I did, so I got the hot air gun from my basement and it was a much smoother process. 72 cm of that tube (all I have left at the moment) weighs 45 grams. The fishing pole grip like a slightly more advanced version of what I have and I'll definitely get some of that to try as well. It seems it shrinks at a lower temperature than the tube I had (which is for electronics).

BTW, I was chatting with a friend on the beach today (he doesn't wingsurf, but he does SUP) and he suggested recycling broken ice hockey sticks as booms. They are not round, but they might work OK, so I'm going to at least look into this. I'm thinking of adding a bit of craft store EVA on the stick and then wrapping that down with heat shrink tube. The profile shape of the tube doesn't matter to me because I'm 3D-printing my own parts anyway, so I can adjust to any profile.

Think it's a standard 125cm...

Pacey said..

longboard said..
Think it's a standard 125cm...

The boom says 125cm but if you measure it you will find it is longer.

128cm for the full length boom and the smaller sizes have another boom attachment point that allows you to use a 15cm shorter boom, so you can make a short boom with a 113cm length.

The fishing rod heat shrink grip weighs 80 grams/meter. I just received a bunch of them. The alu boom I made earlier now has the heat shrink grip, but I have to admit it feels a bit too heavy with it. Thinner heat shrink made for electronics is a lot lighter (less than half this weight) and would probably work well enough.

I'm going to be making some carbon ice hockey stick-based booms soon...probably in December. I have all the raw materials now, so I just need some CAD design time and print the parts.

Pacey said..

longboard said..
Think it's a standard 125cm...

The boom says 125cm but if you measure it you will find it is longer.

the actual tube length is 125cm. with fittings on either end the final length is around 128cm as others have written.

Sorry to hijack the boom discussion.

But can I ask those who have been using the Slick. Would a 3 and 5m quiver work, or is it too much of a gap?

Thanks

airsail said..

sunsetsailboards said..

Pacey said..

longboard said..
Think it's a standard 125cm...

The boom says 125cm but if you measure it you will find it is longer.

the actual tube length is 125cm. with fittings on either end the final length is around 128cm as others have written.

But not for the smaller wings, they have two clew attach points

yes you can cut down production mini booms for the smaller sizes 2.5 and 3.0. Can't remember if the 3.5 also has two attachment points.

If you are using the regular size boom on the smaller wings, it's important to thread the boom through the "inner" connection point and through to the "regular" connection point so you are essentially going through both sets of webbing. This anchors the strut at the ends of the cutout and provide profile support for the wing.

sunsetsailboards said..

Kraut said..
Sorry to hijack the boom discussion.

But can I ask those who have been using the Slick. Would a 3 and 5m quiver work, or is it too much of a gap?

Thanks

just depends on your preferences and your ideal size. for me at 85kg, 3.5 and 5.0 are a better interval with 3.5 being my every day size and 5.0 being a light wind wing.

YMMV

Thanks, yes, I'd like to use both perhaps equally frequently. Covering anything from 12/13 knots up to 30. Probably with a 3.5 at my 70kg I will max out rather at mid 20s. But as I get better I hope I can compensate a bit by using smaller wings and then I may be fine.

Kraut said..

sunsetsailboards said..

Kraut said..
Sorry to hijack the boom discussion.

But can I ask those who have been using the Slick. Would a 3 and 5m quiver work, or is it too much of a gap?

Thanks

just depends on your preferences and your ideal size. for me at 85kg, 3.5 and 5.0 are a better interval with 3.5 being my every day size and 5.0 being a light wind wing.

YMMV

Thanks, yes, I'd like to use both perhaps equally frequently. Covering anything from 12/13 knots up to 30. Probably with a 3.5 at my 70kg I will max out rather at mid 20s. But as I get better I hope I can compensate a bit by using smaller wings and then I may be fine.

for 30kt i'd go smaller than 3.5 on the top end. the low end just depends how efficient you are.