Realy a matter of stiffness, my first carbon boom was to flexible just like Aluminium tube they vary in the composition, so yes you do want a fairly stiff boom but some alum tube I have seen could do it. The big trick is having plenty of angle forward to the pulley on tramp which takes some of the bending load of the boom. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />