h17 gooseneck boom pin update?

Recently I became the owner of a 1987 H17 sport. This boat has the original gooseneck, and the boom has the original round boom pin that attaches directly to the gooseneck. I discovered quickly why a gooseneck update kit was released and have the dents and scratches on my crossbar to show for it.

Luckily, I have been able to acquire the updated gooseneck, supergoose vertex and updated gooseneck boom pin. What I am unable to find is the fwd boom cap.

The question is if I remove my original 1987 fwd boom cap, will I be able to replace the original round boom pin with the updated flat boom pin?

Is there a difference between the original 1987 fwd boom cap and the updated fwd boom cap that was shipped with the gooseneck update kit?

Thanks,
Dank

It’s been a while but when I did the same for my 1987 H17, I think I just put the new gooseneck pin in the old boom cap. There may have been some modifications (I can’t remember) needed for the roll pin that holds the gooseneck pin in the cap. I don’t recall having to buy a new boom cap.

Give it a try.

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H16 2002 "Islands" Sail No. 107432

As far as I know, the end cap would not need to be replaced when upgrading the gooseneck.

By the way, a Hobie 17 “Sport” technically would not have any boom. The Sport was a double-handed derivative of the original H17 platform which included a furling jib and a boomless mainsail. The main simply had a short “boomlet” that was used for attaching the main blocks.

The Hobie 17 Sport was first introduced in the early 1990’s, so your boat is either a Hobie 17 SE (unirig) or a modified SE that had a jib added. I mention this because if your boat has a jib and/or you plan on sailing with a crew, you may want to look into getting rid of your boom all together and going to the boomless rig. The standard H17 boom is very low and is quite difficult for a crew to go under (the skipper and crew basically have to take turns going under the back of the boom).

sm

Thanks for the info and thanks for the details on the boat. Must be the SE.

So what worries me is this line from the instruction manual of the update kit:
"Drill out old style FWD boom cap and reinstall new boom cap assy. Supplied."

I found the manual here:
https://www.hobie.com/support/hobie-17/

It's called Gooseneck H17 Update Kit 50406261.

I may drill out my old boom cap and see if I can just replace the pin with the updated pin.

I’m starting to recall that there was an updated boom cap because the newer gooseneck had a roll pin (to keep it retained in the cap) that didn’t line up with the older casting. Not 100% certain but I definitely had to change the gooseneck at some point and just can’t quite remember.

If the updated boom cap isn’t available then you may need to consider taking the assembly to a machine shop and see what could be done.

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H16 2002 "Islands" Sail No. 107432

Unfortunately the updated boom cap is not available any more. It originally was part of the upgrade kit 50512001. You will have to either modify your old one or have one custom made.

Updated Boom Pin is 10772010.

This thread has more information on the topic: https://www.hobie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=33544

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