Glad you were prepared. I recently got a new spare set as well! I think that’s my 4th! Pins on the North boom are stainless steel: Easy to open/close and great solid feel.
Yes, no doubts Pros use their booms to more extremes! Maybe a bit overkill for me but it still delivers on what I was looking for. I’ve also been using the North PowerXT 2,0 extension for a while now and i didn’t regret it: Downhaul on the fly in the water has been useful almost every time.

My turn to say thanks: On Saturday I used a piece of Gorilla clear tape to cover a 3” stress crack right where my 8.5 rig rests on my head when I carry it back and forth. Perfect fix!

The clips on my Chinook carbon began to break after about 2-3 uses. The curved part past the pins broke, and then the plastic at the hinge pins crumbled. Chinook sent me some replacements, but the originals have been glued on, and I have not yet tried an aggressive approach to removing them. They suggested boiling water soak and then pounding off. I am loathe to replace something which it appears is simply going to break again. For the time being I am taking the broken piece with the 2 intact pins, removing it to adjust the boom, putting back in place, and then wrapping with duck tape to keep pins engaged. This is very secure. Never had boom clips with problems ever before. Holding out until there is something better.

David, your collars are probably the older ones, before the supposedly made “improvement “. The current ones don’t break this dramatically, but slowly in the matter of a season the pins start to separate and fall off. With your no-hinge system you might be up to something good though. I suspect your pins may not break since they are not subjected to bending when you press them in.
I may reconsider /again/ resorting to in-flight adjusting system , whuch I don’t like much, in order to decrease the collars adjustments. I may try also spraying the pins with silicone for lubrication.

David Mark wrote:
David, removing the clips is easy and doesn't require any aggressive approach. Take a small piece (12" or so) of lumber/wood/2x4 and place if lengthwise over the boom and touching the edge of the boom clip. Then take a hammer and tap gently but firmly at the opposite end of the piece of wood while you ensure the wood stays in contact with the edge of the plastic clip. This action will have the clip sliding off the boom in a few tap without problem - even when glued. No damage, no sweat, easy! Just make sure you do not tap with the hammer on the boom if your boom is carbon!

Also, to avoid having the boom moving while taping on the piece of wood, either find someone to hold the boom in place or put one foot on it to keep it stable and in place while hammering on the wood. Either do this on grass or carpet of course! Finally, avoid gluing the new clip with anything too permanent (No epoxy). A dot of super glue might work or a dot of Gorilla glue would do it as well. You want to make sure you wipe the inside of the boom where it meets with the clip to avoid any glue build-up that would prevent the tail piece form sliding in and out freely.

I have a printed instruction from Chinook at home and will upload it later today in an update to this post.

I use a rubber mallet to hammer them out and in and locking pliers to place them precisely over the holes. I don’t put glue on the replacements, they stay in place.

When they first broke I pounded really hard on the collar using a board, nothing budged at all, and Chinook suggested boiling water. Since then, I use my duck tape method and it works ok. I use 1 sail about half the time, just leave the boom extended after sailing, good chance of using the same sail size next time out. Didnt realize that the pins themselves break off.

Per my previous post, here are the instructions on how to remove and install Chinook boom clip.

Finally got around to switching the boom collars. My glued on collars were very difficult to remove using the board technique, but a Severne vimeo advised using some heat and an adjustable wrench to lay against the boom collar, with the adjustable wrench opened to the diameter of the boom tubes, then whacking the side of the adjustable wrench. This provided a much more stable surface to hit with a hammer. Five firm whacks and the collar loosened nicely, then the new collars (got free from Chinook) went on easily by hand.

I have replaced the collars twice already. I’m removing them with curved jaw locking players easily and I don’t apply any on the replacements. Hammering them into place is more then enough.

I think its rotten that they need to be replaced so often. I got used to keeping the boom extended in one position due to my taping system, so I am going to minimize adjusting the boom by just keeping it at the length I last used it at. I noticed that when I was using tape the pins were in excellent condition, probably due to being able to directly visualize the holes and line them up perfectly before inserting the pins. No lateral forces exerted on the pins when inserting. So I'll be patient and learn exactly how to line up the pins with the holes even though difficult to directly visualize.

Replaced mine several times as well. The plastic pins have been an issue in some and the whole collar split at the hinge in some. I'd be willing to pay an extra $$ for a better engineered and metal pin design!

I checked the collars in my boom yesterday and they looked fine. I’ll skip the replacement this year it seems. According to my session records I’ve used the boom 50% more this year then in 2018 and 17 when I replaced the collars in both of those years. Did I get better quality parts the last time? They look the same to me but lets hope so. One of the bolts in the head keeps loosening a little bit. Just the one for some reason. Check yours just in case.