A boom vang (US) or kicking strap (UK) is a line or piston system on a sailboat used to exert downward force on the boom and thus control the shape of the sail.
There are a lot of really nice boom vangs for sale that I’m sure are fairly simple to install. We considered buying a rigid vang, but with a boom gallows we didn’t see the need for one. Plus, a fellow Tayana Owner, John Lewis on Active Transport, had issues with his and broken gooseneck bolts. Ultimately, we opted to go the slightly more difficult route and create ours from scratch.
Rich decided to make one out of dyneema and low-friction rings. Originally, he used a strop wrapped around the boom as the attachment point. But we found that it would inch it’s way forward as pressure was exerted downward on the boom. For the final iteration of the boom vang, Rich riveted a boom bale as the attachment point.
To tension the vang we needed a way to secure it, like a cleat. We really like the cam cleats we installed for the traveler control lines so we decided to install another one on the cabin top. Come to find out, dyneema doesn’t play well with cam cleats because it’s too slick, so Rich spliced the dyneema to a short length of double braid to work in the cleat. We use the boom vang everytime we sail and it nicely improves the sail shape.
