boom gooseneck ideas

[osteoderm]

i get the feeling that it was just this sort of fiddling that resulted in "black bands" for rated boats. From there, with a fixed tack height and marked maximum head height, comes the introduction of the cunningham control (which also controls luff tension/draft, but without affecting boom angle).
On many working gaffers i've sailed, the gooseneck is fitted to a sliding post of "crab" immediately abaft of, and attached to, the mast. With the sail down, stropping the ends of the gaff to the ends of the boom lets you haul the whole works up a few feet, raising the rafters, so to speak, for any boom tent.
Few "modern" sliding goosenecks offer such vertical range of motion, but with a halyard and topping lift, it's nice to get the boom and stowed sail up just that little bit higher in port.

[Coquina]

Just found this thread while searching for info on freeing up my worm gear driven bronze roller boom gooseneck. I believe it's a Merriman Bros. and it's been seized for as long as we've owned Coquina - this is our 6th winter with her. I don't know if the previous owners ever used the roller boom to reef the main. There's one set of reef points in the main and we've used that without any problem but I single-hand a lot and it'd be handy to have this working or I'd rig a jiffy-reef system instead. Coquina is an 1962 S&S design "Lotus" class sloop, 28.5', mahogany planked on yacal frames. Lots of Merriman hardware that's working well on deck.

I've tried soaking with penetrating oil and judicious mechanical persuasion with no change. I'm thinking heat next but not sure if it's safe for the bronze.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Mike