Boom and mast support

I have always wanted some form of boom gallows. Partly to speed things up when raising and lowering the mast, and partly to form a basis of a cockpit tent/spray hood extension. I also hate having loose things the lying around in the cockpit or hidden away in the cabin. The boom scissors I have work fine, but they just irritate me. My latest attempt will use two guard rail stainless steel stanchions, secured to the cockpit coaming as far back as they can go and still support the lowered boom. I have fitted two wedges to make the base fittings parallel. (I must confess that I glued one wedge on the wrong way round and had to chisel it off and start all over again.)

Joining the stanchions will be a curved, laminated cross beam, made from four think softwood planks, braced in a curve and glued together. I have never laminated anything like this before.When I first clamped the boards, all of the chocks I had carefully nailed along the curve on the workbench just pulled out. Eventually I screwed them all down to the bench with 4 inch screws. All of the jig is covered in parcel tape and all four layers epoxied together, so hopefully in the morning the bits which should stick together do so, and then bits that shouldn't, don't. I am also thinking of fitting side navigation lights onto the ends of the gallows, which will get them fairly high but keep them out of the way. As always, we shall see.