Iain C
Well-Known Member
Some of you may remember this thread...
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?350887-Show-me-your-bowsprits!
Well, after a few outings with the new cruising chute, I decided that the bowsprit would definitely make things a lot easier. The tack line was getting caught round the furling drum and nav lights, and it occassionally fouled the rolled up genoa on the gybes, so I decided to push ahead with a carbon pole that could be removed when nesessary. Original plan was for a Selden bow ring, but there was'nt enough room on the foredeck, what with a chunky samson post, a deck stowed anchor and a windlass.
I used a bit of mast from this boat...pictured in happier times at an event at Rutland before the mast got trashed during a storm when the boat was ashore...
(In actual fact, we also got 5 seconds of fame at 5:20 in this promotional film of Rutland http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ZeDLEsHzA)
A test fitting of a piece of mast gave encouraging results, and the plan was to have a slightly offset bowsprit, angled so the end was on the centreline, and some kind of fixing at the inboard end. The outboard end would have an additional piece that would drop into the bow sheaves (no rollers on a Sabre) and be held in place with an 8mm pin.
I then ground the track off, filled it with bog, and bogged a piece of acetal bar (left over from last winter's new rudder bearing) on the bottom to be the "roller" that locates in the sheave (I still need to drill the hole when I get down to the boat!). This was then filletted in, and then I would round lots of both kevlar and carbon tow to keep the two together. Then about 3 layers of carbon twill were added to the join and finally the whole thing was wrapped in plain weave carbon. A friend got some delrin endcaps turned up at work, a hard eye was through bolted at one end, and a dinghy spinnaker pole end fixed at the other end. A stainless eye will be mounted onto a threaded bar which will be sikaflexed and bolted through the deck, and a system of snapshackle blocks will quickly convert the symmetric kite pole downhaul into the tack line for the asymm.
Only cost was the pole end (£11), and the blocks (got 5 good second hand ones for £30 from this forum), everything else was kicking around in the man-shed and might-come-in-useful-one-day box.
The extensive testing programme consists of the Round the Island Race this Saturday...let's just hope it works! And if anyone asks, yes, that is a carbon fibre bowsprit on a Sabre 27...
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?350887-Show-me-your-bowsprits!
Well, after a few outings with the new cruising chute, I decided that the bowsprit would definitely make things a lot easier. The tack line was getting caught round the furling drum and nav lights, and it occassionally fouled the rolled up genoa on the gybes, so I decided to push ahead with a carbon pole that could be removed when nesessary. Original plan was for a Selden bow ring, but there was'nt enough room on the foredeck, what with a chunky samson post, a deck stowed anchor and a windlass.
I used a bit of mast from this boat...pictured in happier times at an event at Rutland before the mast got trashed during a storm when the boat was ashore...
(In actual fact, we also got 5 seconds of fame at 5:20 in this promotional film of Rutland http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ZeDLEsHzA)
A test fitting of a piece of mast gave encouraging results, and the plan was to have a slightly offset bowsprit, angled so the end was on the centreline, and some kind of fixing at the inboard end. The outboard end would have an additional piece that would drop into the bow sheaves (no rollers on a Sabre) and be held in place with an 8mm pin.
I then ground the track off, filled it with bog, and bogged a piece of acetal bar (left over from last winter's new rudder bearing) on the bottom to be the "roller" that locates in the sheave (I still need to drill the hole when I get down to the boat!). This was then filletted in, and then I would round lots of both kevlar and carbon tow to keep the two together. Then about 3 layers of carbon twill were added to the join and finally the whole thing was wrapped in plain weave carbon. A friend got some delrin endcaps turned up at work, a hard eye was through bolted at one end, and a dinghy spinnaker pole end fixed at the other end. A stainless eye will be mounted onto a threaded bar which will be sikaflexed and bolted through the deck, and a system of snapshackle blocks will quickly convert the symmetric kite pole downhaul into the tack line for the asymm.
Only cost was the pole end (£11), and the blocks (got 5 good second hand ones for £30 from this forum), everything else was kicking around in the man-shed and might-come-in-useful-one-day box.
The extensive testing programme consists of the Round the Island Race this Saturday...let's just hope it works! And if anyone asks, yes, that is a carbon fibre bowsprit on a Sabre 27...
