Bow sprit stays required?

[tgot]

Hi all,

I'm new here (obviously), and I'm new to boat building and sailing. However, I have built myself a PDRacer and am at the point of building my mast and sails. My question is this: Is it necessary to have stays on a bowsprit? I'm only planning on flying about 55 square feet of sail area which includes both the jib and main on a 12' mast (above deck). The sprit itself is 4 ft overall length with the lower foot encased in tight housing running through the bow deck. It is made of a 2x3 piece of lumber from HD that I have shaved down a bit at the end. The forestay will just connect to a heavy bolt that I will run through the end of the sprit.

while i am no engineer, I'm pretty sure I have overbuilt the mast step, partner, and sprit housing (I don't know what the technical name of that is) and all should be more than secure and tight down there. But in your professional opinions, do you think that, given this set-up, I will need to run stays to the hull or bow? Thanks in advance for any advice!

Travis

 

[Woodlouse]

I'd say almost certainly not, though a bobstay might help your luff tension on the jib. You shouldn't need whisker stays for that sort of sail area.

 

[Romeo]

With a rig that small my non professional opinion is to keep it as simple as possible and try it without a bob stay. What type of sloop rig have you got, and do you have shrouds on the mast, or is the mast free standing?

 

[tgot]

Cool, thanks I was hoping that would be the consensus. When you say, what type of sloop rig, I am not quite sure what you mean. The plan I've drawn up is for a Genoa up front (not sure how much it will overlap in the end or how I am going to rig a track and car thing for the clew) and what is (from what I know) close to a Marconi type main. Both sails will have just over a 10' luff, so not very big.

Is that what you meant by sloop rig?? No shrouds, the main will be a fixed sail, so no reefing options, and the fore I will just be able to raise and lower with a simple haul system that I am still trying to work out specifics on...

But it's nice that I can stop worrying about excessive movement on the sprit. I was worried about the luff tension on the fore and still trying to work out a way to control that without having extra stays on the sprit. We will see.

I'll try and post some pictures soon! Thanks again for your input!

 

[tgot]

Oops, double post

 

[Romeo]

Cool, thanks I was hoping that would be the consensus. When you say, what type of sloop rig, I am not quite sure what you mean. The plan I've drawn up is for a Genoa up front (not sure how much it will overlap in the end or how I am going to rig a track and car thing for the clew) and what is (from what I know) close to a Marconi type main. Both sails will have just over a 10' luff, so not very big.

Is that what you meant by sloop rig?? No shrouds, the main will be a fixed sail, so no reefing options, and the fore I will just be able to raise and lower with a simple haul system that I am still trying to work out specifics on...

But it's nice that I can stop worrying about excessive movement on the sprit. I was worried about the luff tension on the fore and still trying to work out a way to control that without having extra stays on the sprit. We will see.

I'll try and post some pictures soon! Thanks again for your input!

By sloop I mean that you have one foresail and one main sail. Good luck and enjoy the experiments.