How to rig preventers and boom brakes

Rigging a preventer or using a boom brake is just good seamanship when sailing downwind, but doing so badly is asking for trouble, says Rachael Sprot

A  well-designed preventer system is just as important as any other part of the rigging, but it’s often an afterthought, sometimes little more than an old mooring line tied around the boom. As the average size of a cruising yacht, and a mainsail, increases, it becomes ever more critical. In the preceding pages, we’ve looked at four cases over the last 20 years in which accidental gybes led to serious injury or death of at least one crew member. Although these fatalities happened for different reasons, many of them shared similar features, such as strong winds and large seas, helmsperson inexperience, fatigue or distraction and the skipper being away from the cockpit. Two had preventers rigged that failed. In particular, the Platino report demonstrates the huge loads involved, and the importance of how gybe-prevention equipment is fitted and rigged. It makes for sobering reading and has made me sit back and think about how I do things on my boat and when I am aboard other boats. Hopefully, these two articles will serve to make us better, safer and more aware skippers.

Chastened by the reports’ findings, I spent a day with Iain Horlock, chief rigger at Devonbased rigging company, Jimmy Green Marine, to better understand how to design a preventer for a cruising yacht under 50ft. We used Nimrod, my 36ft Cheoy Lee, to create a traditional preventer system and also tried two alternatives to a preventer: the Walder Boom Brake and the Wichard Gyb’Easy.

PREVENTER RIGGING