Tony,
To make room on the masthead I just drilled and tapped for three 5/16" bolts deep into the top of the cast masthead and bolted on 2' 12ga. X 3/4" stainless square tube. I have the aft end sticking out so I can move my backstay to it and get a larger roach on my next mainsail.
(anyone want to buy a two year old main after this season?)
The sprit was a pretty simple addition. two pieces of 3/4" marine plywood bonded together. I picked this dimension simply because that matched the rubrail. it is through bolted with stainless threaded rod with the nuts counterbored and the rubrail covering them. it was installed with 5200.
The bobstay tang is just bolted through the bow. The way I see it, the sprit is mostly experiencing compression loads and slight side loads. My only engineering was to look at how flimsy a old Catalina 30 sprit is and build mine a little stronger. That sucker has been carrying a big old masthead 150% genoa for 30 years without any problems.
Reply With Quote