Bowsprits

[naiad]

Can anyone please advise as to how I construct a 6ft bowsprit, suitable for a 24ft cruising yacht? Would laminating marine ply + epoxy be strong enough? If not, what wood? Also, where can I buy the 'ring' end fitting?
Has anyone a used bowsprit for sale, the easy way out!

 

[Guest]

Try classic marine www.classicmarine.co.uk for bits. I think you might run into problems using ply. Bonding say 3 peices together can help keep things stable by reversing the grain, Take baulk of timber, cut into three, reverse midle section and bond back together. Epoxy would work so would polyurethane (botcon). Traditionaly bowspits are a single peice of timber but this must be properly selected and seasoned to be stable. Robbins in Bristol might be worth a try as they can select a peice for you if they know what it's for. I would go to a specialist unless you are very confident in your knowlage of wood. Rigging Handbook (Brion Toss) has some good ideas on scantlings/rigging

Roly, Voya Con Dios, Glasson, Lancaster

 

[Mirelle]

Yes, Classic Marine are the place to go for bits and for advice.

You may need five fittings, really, and certainly you will need three. You need the ring at the end (the cranse iron) and Moray McPhail at Classic Marine stocks several sizes in galvanised iron and in bronze. Then you need the ring at the stem head - the gammon iron, so called because in the days of Hornblower and Aubrey it was made of rope and called a gammoning. Consult Classic Marine and describe your stem head - is the bowsprit to go over the top or to one side and do you want to incorporate the anchor roller in the fitting?

Next you need an eye to secure the bobstay to the stem at or just below the waterline - again, many different types.

You may or may not want to have shrouds on each side of the bowsprit, if you do you need bowsprit shroud eye plates to go on the hull a few feet back from the stem - same source.

As to timber, you want a fairly resilient, light, softwood. Ideally sitka spruce, but, as that is very expensive, try Douglas Fir, sold in this country as British Columbian Pine ("BCP")

Making a bowsprit is dead easy - start with a baulk of timber of the right length and plane it to the shape you want.

You need to consider carefully how you will attach the inboard end to the foredeck.

 

[naiad]

Many thanks for expert advice. Present bowsprit was an amateur, Mickey Mouse affair, which surprisingly, worked. All O.K. until rammed on my mooring.
Some fixtures are satisfactory, but I would like to improve on what was there.
You've given me a good start. Thanks again.