Dave Mason wrote:My son and I flew the spinaker last Sunday with great success. 6+ knots in just under 10 knots of wind on a beam reach on the first try.
A bowsprit like pictured above would be a nice factory option for a Mac. No?
That's an attractive job, but in spite of its width and IMHO, it needs stays on the side going back to below the rub rail on both sides of the boat, in addition to the bobstay going to the bow eye.
If the forestay that attached to it weren't at the top of the mast, I'd consider putting an anchor roller on it just past the bobstay.
Would like to add a bowsprit for the asymmetric's tack, so it is not blanketed by the mainsail and so can be flown with the main over a wider range of course/wind angles.
However, the sprit should be retractable/ removable to ease docking and minimize transient dock fees.
Also desire to avoid drilling foredeck or hull, cutting into the flotation chamber therebeneath and similar radical surgery.
Websearching has not yielded "the answer" yet.
My main problem is where else to fix the sprit/sprit carrier to the boat.....ideas so far are.....
1. lash, etc. sprit/ sprit support tube to bow pulpit feet on one/both sides of boat...pulpit with 4 feet bolted to the deck feels immovable but to limit risk to it I guess sprit or its mounting should give/break first.....or
2. removably mount sprit on fittings fixed to large area plates epoxied to the major area of the fore and aft walls of the anchor locker... and sail with locker lid open and rode lashed down against escape from locker (anchors don't fit in the locker anyway).
Any thots?
My bow roller is beefy and well-founded to a heavy aluminum backing plate. The same plate is also used to anchor the bow cleats. IMO, the roller is plenty strong to serve as the foundation for "removably" mounting a sprit, especially if you also "bobstay" the sprit down to the boweye. (I'd be a little frustrated if I needed to remove my primary anchor when rigging the kite, so some added design effort would be necessary.)
I think a well-designed bow roller installation could serve dual-roles.
Yep, that's my bowsprit allrite. I had to hack it off and lap it back on with quarter inch bolts to satisfy our marina's length requirements. It wasn't actually a big problem, but the boat was just too damn fast for some of the other keelboaters up there. So now it sits upright against the pulpit rail. Side to side strength is not a problem on this design, but if you wanted more you could put the cross members in at a 45 like webbing in a truss. Attaching anchor roller, etc is not an option for me since I have to fold it up in the berth. Still working on that one.
Faor winds/short winter to all, Dave
I'm certain there was a member with same name located along USA gulf coast, maybe FL panhandle. He posted info about a mast cleat pulling loose from his 26X mast, causing the mast to fall during mast-raising. Seems from here, that Dave iMason s not you ????
