Headsail anchor to bowsprit

[CaseyMcM]

I’d like to put a Code Zero drifter/gennaker on my Tayana 37 heavy double ended cruiser on a removable continuous furler. The sail is 1.5 oz nylon, 410 sq ft, and intended to be flown below 20 knots. The Colligo furler has a safe working load of 6000 lbs, so presumably the anchor needs to handle this load easily.
My father in law built a beautiful replacement teak bowsprit for this boat so I’d like to avoid drilling or chafing it too much. Here is my thinking:
- an oversized (3/8 or 1/2 in?) Amsteel strop with brummel splices at each end will be clove hitched around the bowsprit a few inches ahead of the stemhead and passed a few inches up through a hole in the teak grating of the walkway where the furler will clip to it.
- the bowsprit is at least 8 inches in diameter here, octagonal and there is a huge bolt through the sprit and the deck just aft of the stemhead, the cranze iron is new/strong as are the bob and whisker stays (I don't think strength is an issue)
- nylon webbing used for chafe protection where it passes through the teak grate
- leather pad between the strop and bowsprit to protect the wood, held on with waxed thread “suspenders”

I searched through Ashley for a knot more intended for lashing to a spar, but nothing was obvious. It seems like a lot of stress on the parts of the strop which turn 90 degrees as they pass under the cross part of the clove hitch, but that’s why it’ll be oversized. Maybe an extra turn around the bowsprit would help avoid it wandering.

Any comments on the suitability of this?

[Ian McColgin]

A clove hitch or any similar knot will never come undone if kept under stress, but may work it's way loose in this application since the strain is on the loops themselves and not on one or the other free end.

This is a fairly permanent installation, I'd be inclined to use the approach to stropping that I use all over my catboat and formerly on my schooners.

Make perhaps two wraps - whatever will fill the pin between the forks of a shackle or toggle - and sieze the ends (generous overlap) under the sprit. Since you'll be allowing a little slack anyway to keep the toggle above the platform, you can do the work above and then rotate the siezing out of sight. I'd do three or four siezings about four diameters long each with stitching under and wracked.

Remember, siezing is strong enough for stays on some traditional rigs. You can make them strong enough for this.

G'luck

[CaseyMcM]

Yes, this is intended to be fairly permanent. I don't know the term wracked, are you referring to making frapping turns around the seizing?
This sounds like a good option, but I think I'd feel more comfortable with a lashing between two loops in the ends of a strop, HM stuff just seems too slippery. Is that unfounded? Also, I'm unsure how well a shackle or toggle will fit above the grating and if the strop would chafe on the edges of it. Thinking about it again, maybe I can do this aft of the grate walkway. Going to the boat tonight, will have to check it out.

Here's a pic that sort of shows the space between the bowsprit and platform and the size of the holes in the platform.

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
Are we talking about putting the tack of the drifter aft of the jibstay? Do you know how many ways this could go very wrong? How about a grommet, perhaps with a thimble seized in, just forward of the cranse iron? You could always lash it lightly aft so it couldn't fall off forward. Sometimes you'll see boats where the jibstay has been moved aft, to the tack hole, leaving an empty hole ahead of it suited to this job. But this too often makes for bad geometry, relative to the bobstay, so be wary.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[CaseyMcM]

Would you mind filling me in on some of the ways it could go wrong?

This is a code 0, about 100% jib equivalent, very flat cut (intended for reaching) with a sewn in HM luff line that it is furled onto with a continuous line furler. The yankee sheets will be tied out of the way when this is flying and this sail will be bagged on deck when the yankee is flying. The tack will be aft of the jibstay (ahead of the forestay w/staysail) and it will be hoisted with a spare jib halyard where the upper swivel will likely be 2 feet below the jib furler swivel. As you suggest, there isn't much room in front of the cranse iron and the furler would foul with the jib furler.
I bought the sail used from a gentleman who was using it in a similar way on an Ingrid 38, and here is a sister ship to mine doing something similar.

[Brion Toss]

Hi again,
There are lots of ways to rig light-air sails, and of course the easiest way is not always the best. One configuration involves tacking the sail aft of the jibstay, but hanging it from a spinnaker halyard crane. This would of course foul the jibstay, and I had feared that this is what you were considering.
Instead, you would have the halyard below the jibstay, which prevents that fouling, but only at the price of reducing sail area by 70sq. ft., or about 15%. On a light air sail, this is an unacceptable price.
There are other issues, like chafe on lifelines, the inability to fly Genoa and drifter together, optimal sail shape, etc. I have no doubt that the gentleman you reference gets good use out of his setup, but I very much doubt that his solution is optimal. And while we are at it, let's look at what he has done, starting with load calculations. He says that what he did is based on a "common-sense, educated-guess approach," and that he, "overbuilt the fitting to give us an added safety factor." And then he shows the formula he used, which is for sheet loads only, not for the load on that bowsprit fitting.
Nor am I impressed by the vulnerable-looking halyard crane he installed. And what's with the upside-down DVH on his Genoa furler?
My recommendation would be for you to get in touch with my hero, Carol Hasse. She is an extraordinary sailmaker, sailor, and human being, and she will gladly give you some options, forward and aft of the jibstay, even if there is no chance you'll be buying a sail from her. Her shop number is 360-385-1640.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss