Making your own kicker lever

Contributed by Alan Price
(Click on photo for full-size pic)

kicker: strop kicker: lever, pin kicker: lower bolt kicker: strop/lever joint kicker; general appearance The aluminium bar and tube I used appears to be exact imperial dimensions as follows:

A M5 hexagon bolt will pass through the tube used at the pivot point and lower position where the pulley is attached..Use a single wrap of insulation tap around the bolts to prevent corrosion inside the tube. At the pivot point, I fitted a length of tube right through the boom to help locate the bolt and spread load. Use lock nuts.

The following lever sizes and position on the boom I copied from the set up on GBR2041 which I had for six years. It worked well as does my home made version on 1211. It takes very little to pull the control line and have a big effect. It doesn't snag on anything either.

Lever dimensions:

Position on Boom.
Pivot bolt centre is 385mm aft of gooseneck bolt centre and 55mm up from bottom edge of boom.

The wire strop around the mast is attached to the lever with some cut down stainless shroud chain plate with holes at 1cm intervals, so the length of the strop is not so critical. When under load it will pull on the mast's deck bearing in an upwards direction and as the bearing is only riveted to the mast, I have fitted a jubilee clip around the mast immediately above the bearing to give it extra support.

I bought the bar and tube from a local metal stockist. Cannot remember what it cost but not a lot. I made it as part of a refit/update some 4 years ago.