wind vanes and bumpkins

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yourmomm

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hi-i have just bought a classic 32ft ketch, whose marina-measured length (MML-anyone else think this is far more useful a figure than LOA?!) is a whopping 41ft, due to bowsprit and bumpkin, on which sits a nice fully funtioning aries wind vane. the marina i want to stay in charges £1000 more annually for boats over 12m-this is 12.3!! something needs to go....are wind vanes any use anyway?! how can i remove the bumpkin without causing too much damage to whats left? or maybe i could chop 30cm off the 'sprit? many thanks for advice to a novice.
 
I would second Fishermantwo's comment. For heaven's sake don't cut anything off the bowsprit if you intend to sail the boat. You might turn a lovely sailer into a real turkey that you'd prefer to leave in the marina. If your ketch is anything like mine a wind-vane self-steerer is only useful on long passages. Mine sits in a groove and ploughs on for as long as I let it without me doing anything on the helm.

What was often done to make a boat shorter when not sailing was to arrange the bowsprit to be of the housing variety, which can be slid back onto the foredeck and locked there, so that none of it sticks out past the stem. This is the normal arrangement on the East Coast smacks, so have a look at some of them and talk to shipwrights in the area.
Peter.
 
Another advantage of a reeving bowsprit is you can haul it in before coming in to moor. It makes it easier to jump ashore, and avoids the risk of putting it through someone's cabin window.
 
Keep the Aries windvane (or throw it in my direction!) and alter the bowsprit to the "housing" type. I altered mine and have never regretted it. Makes fitting out easier and takes half the terror out of marinas.

You will need to have bitts long enough to fit a wooden roller, preferably about 4" diameter, over the bowsprit and you will want to cut a slot for a wooden fid, which should have rounded sides and should taper slightly on the fore side. It's handy to be able to remove the roller once the bowsprit is part way in. You need a tackle on the bobstay but the bowsprit shrouds can stay as they are.

You should be able to run the bowsprit out without a heel rope if everything is set up right, but for safety's sake fit one.
 
thanks all for your help-its unanimous-the wind vane stays!!! not sure what to do with my autopilot though....-just one thing-are you SURE a retractable bowsprit is an option in THIS case?! [image]C:\Documents and Settings\Me\Desktop\vag\IMAG0013.JPG[/image]
 
yes-sorry-i have no idea how to add an image-any guidance would be appreciated!!-but the bowsprit has 3/4" diameter permanent custom-made stainless steel guardrails all around, and a walkway either side of the sprit itself. an image would be more helpful in describing it....
 
Stainless-steel guardrails and a walkway each side of the bowsprit? Are you sure that we're not talking about the 'Stavros Niarchos' here? I would tentatively suggest that these are the fittings which ought to be under review, not the Aries Vane or bowsprit.
Peter.
 
not very clear, but you get the idea from the link to the photo gallery below.....a little overboard perhaps but cute nevertheless!! seems a shame to destroy the bowsprit and replace with a retractible one....ho-hum.

boat
 
Nice boat.

Yes, personally, I would indeed change the bowsprit. That style of bowsprit, with the pulpit carried along it, may be all very well for hunting swordfish on a power sport fisherman in the USA, but as a proboscis on a 32 foot sailing boat it is, IMHO, not an enhancement to the boat. She is too small for it, and that amount of weight so far from the CG will be doing her sailing performance no good at all.

The idea of going out along the bowsprit at sea to furl or set a jib hanked to the outer forestay is not one that your life insurers will be happy about - not for nothing do Americans call this sort of bowsprit "the widowmaker"!

Set the jib flying, with or without a Wykeham Martin gear, on a ring traveller, and handle it from the foredeck, if you wish to see old age!

A point worth watching is - to what extent does the integrity of the rig depend on the bowsprit? In UK tradition, it absolutely should not, but some American-type Bermudian ketch rigged boats like this one do rely on the bowsprit to support the top of the mainmast. This is very undesirable - lose the bowsprit and you lose the rig!

It is better to use a jumper strut and put all the load on the inner forestay, which goes to the stem head.
 
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