Bowsprit

Skorpa sports a removable bowsprit that allows her to fly a 250 square foot asymmetrical spinnaker. This more than doubles her working sail area of 238 sqft.  I had a few questions about the bowsprit tube so I called Graham and he answered my questions and as he often does he also gave me a little trick to make the job go easier.

Getting the hole cut in the hull in the right place, with the right shape is a little tricky.

Here is Graham's helpful tip.

Locate the point 6 feet forward of the bow where the tip of the bowsprit should be.

Determine where on the forward bulkhead the base of the bowsprit sits.

Using your best judgement drill a hole through the hull in line with those two points.

Now run a string from the tip location through the hole to the base.

Move the hole until the string is straight and you have the center of the necessary opening in the hull.

I used the same trick to determine the forward and aft points of the opening.

I used a variety of methods to draw the outline of the opening, but knowing for certain the center point was critical to doing a reasonable job.

The opening came out pretty nicely. The carbon fiber bowsprit tube is laying on the deck.

I reinforced the area around the hull opening with 3/8 ply ' to give it some bearing' as Graham says. The I added some carbon and fiberglass tape. You can see the main mast trying out the tabernacle.