Day 320

Well, at last, I can make the bowsprit! I have been thinking about possible methods to construct this absolutely necessary appendage. ( i.e. Titanic movie lol! ) Originally it was going to be very narrow but this would create problems with the anchor roller assembly and access to it. The anchors, because of their oversize dimensions, would never be able to fit through it or it would need to be 4 feet wide.

2" pipe, First bend at 90º

To be honest, I didn't know exactly how wide it would be but I was aiming for 24" when, in fact it came to about 28". The anchor roller assembly is fairly high so the sprit must clear it, higher than the bulwark height. The 2" pipe must be welded on to the top side of the bulwarks and a jut upward in the pipe seemed logical.

I then realized that this would be difficult to achieve with the bender and would result in a twisted mess of ugliness. One bend can't be inside the rollers on the bender when bending another or it will straighten out, or worse, break the pipe.

Bent into 2 angles

The only solution was to make one bend serve as two bends. A 45º bend in relation to the deck was in order! The forward edge of the pipe turns 90º to meet in the center with the opposite pipe. That is the angle I started with. The top photo shows the 45º being bent in the inset. It was eyed in so probably closer to 35º but it looked like the right angle to bring into the hull which is angled out as well.

The photo to left shows the pipe bent twice. The tricky part was to duplicate this as a mirror image.

The center was marked using a flatbar tacked on to the bow and a piece of aluminum angle lined up with the tip and inner chainplate. the ends of pipe were snaped off at an appropriate position of height vs. width. Before the sprit center is welded in, the whole thing will be pre-stressed to allow a small stay to be attached for flags or a small sail, hoist line whatever.

All that needs to be done now is mounts for the little floor, a hoop for a stay, and stanchion mounts attached. The first thought on the angle of the stanchions was to make them the same as the bow but this would make them out of reach hehe. They will have some forward angle to avoid them looking backward, but not sure how much yet. The tree next to the sprit will need to be removed eventually as it is being a major pain now.

	The hardest part was trying to see the angle the sprit went up. Our yard drops off like a hill and the other view is completely obscured by trees. I hope it's good! Gena continued with the boring job of grinding. She's such a sport letting me have all the fun!