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Here's some interesting hardware at our dock -- a movable bowsprit that appears to be removable. Why go to all the work Ebb is contemplating, when you can easily add this bit of sail handling hardware. One carbon fiber tube and three clamping fixtures is all it takes . . .
Bill, you find the most frightening things sometimes!!!
It's 7/7/17 today. A guest is viewing this old post, that's how I get
back here. There is forward? movement on the little-gull project.
ARIEL CRS
Sailmaker suggested we go with a bowsprit, turning the Ariel into
a cutter rigged sloop. Some time ago built a A-shaped* aluminum
pipe sprit, that I really liked. But weighs 20lbs without any rigging
gear. Crunched weights for different woods and styles and found
that any traditional bowsprit is out of the question for an Ariel.
* A-style bowsprits are a way to avoid whisker or shroud stays
needed for single pole side support. That rigging makes an anchor
roller even more difficult to rig on the bow. Turns out any sprit on
a cruising Ariel makes it hard to find room for an anchor.
Thinking cruising, the bow will collect a lot of heavy gear making
a heavy romantic sprit extra stupid and really dangerous.
Along comes Trogear Marine Products with their A-Sprits, that
are designed to fly asymmetric genoas off boats not originally
created with a sprit. Sprit is attached to the nose of the bow with
a 1/2" titanium rod thru a permanently epoxied to the boat: 1"
G-10 tube. It acts as a hinge. The sprit is rigged with Dyneema
shackles and similar material for block and tackle bobstay. 4-5lbs.
Decided to install the A-Sprit more traditionally, so that the jib stay
with furler helps support our deck-stepped mast. Henry, Trogear's
inventor, came to the Ariel, and while nobody is fool enough to do
what I thought I wanted, he said the sprit was strong enough for
the compression loads. Working load: 2 metric tons!!
Add bronze t'buckle, toggles, rod, for bobstay. 10lbs total?
Had already planned to have a baby-stay. A clever Wichard mast
stay fitting attached 18" lower than the shroud tangs. Imagined
Solent style with highfield lever on the bow fitting. But now, with a
'three foot sprit' rigged more permanent.
The outer jib stay, for the asymmetric, can be hard rigged with a
reefer/furler, but imagine** that it can still be made to hinge up,
as it is designed, to shrink three feet off the length of the boat.
(**Problem of course is how to deal with the foil & furler gear AND
sail if we have to shorten the boat for a marina situation. Unless
there is a direct way of doing it, knowing me, it'll be hard rigged.)
Haven't figured out what to do about an anchor roller. The sprit is
hinged outside the toerail, slightly below, to allow the hinge tube to
cross side to side just under deck level inside. {Must be extremely
careful positioning the tube -- we had to do it twice on litlgull!} It's
positioned about 9-10" aft of the stem, right where anchor rollers
and chocks are located on deck.
Rollbar anchors, like Mantus, can't be housed. And if you look in on
page 11, "New Generation Anchors" here in the Tech Forum, you'll
find out that today's popular permanently weld-on rollbar anchors
have serious problems for cruisers. Of course you can crank in any
anchor as high as it goes, then reach over the pulpit and hand it
on to the deck... then what?
Trogear sprit is an amazing sleek work of carbon-tube art. UNcheap.
YouTube: Trogear Bowsprits - The-A-Sprit
Can't help but notice those CLOSE double reefer-furler forestays.
....aa a a h h h... so e z... wing on wing in the Trades!!
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