Cranse Iron re-bedding

[dob]

Hello, I pulled my cranes iron off the bow sprit of my WS32 to inspect. After cleaning it up and placing a couple of coats of penetrating on the wood, noticed it is a bit loose when placed back on. Thinking of rebedding with Lifecaulk. Any ideas on rebedding a cranse iron?

Thanks!

[Ian McColgin]

Life Caulk is lovely stuff, if you can keep it from getting all over, but it's not a bedding compound. Nor is any glue, like 5200. Get some Dolfinite or similar.

Assuming the cranse can fit back against a shoulder on the bow sprit, the sprit may be a trifle dried but that won't hurt. But test the fit that the cranse really can snug down to the shoulder on the bow sprit. The best cast cranse irons have just the slightest bit of taper and if you goober in too much bedding it won't set down correctly.

G'luck

[dob]

Thanks much for the response. I did see some info on Dolfinite, but thought it was stuff used prior to the new bedding compounds like Life Caulk. Interestingly, my cranse is a welded cap, so rather than fitting on the shoulder, it seems to rely on butting against the end of the bowsprit.

[Brion Toss]

Hi,
A loose fit isn't necessarily a deal-breaker, assuming that you have lots of compression surface to bear on, and that the loads on the iron run straight down the bowsprit. Unfortunately, few cranse irons are designed to provide this vector; most often the bobstay pulls aft harder than the forestay does. The result is crushed wood, rot, and sometimes failure of the end of the bowsprit. I go into this at some length in the "Apprentice."
For our clients, we always fair in some structural epoxy filler, to provide a proper fit, even if the geometry is right.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss