Peterson Coaster III one-piece bowsprit

[stormkreau]

I recently purchased a Perterson Coaster III and was wondering about a few things that fall outside the designer's original specs. The one I'm thinking on now is the bowsprit that is one piece of wood, rather than two smaller connected pieces... the original sprit was broke off and replaced by a larger solid single piece. The new sprit doesn't sit on the stem the way I think it should, and there are vertical cracks in the stem as a result (I think). So, is the bowsprit supposed to rest on the stem such that the ass end fits in the post and the middle rests on the stem?

I also over-torqued the whiskers at one point to hold the sprit up off the stem, thinking they were supposed to take the load off the stem area, but have since realized that it was too much tension for the whiskers. I then changed tacks to making sure it rests on the stem in the right way, i.e., not pushing down on the fancy woodwork that's connected to the stem, which results in a pulling on the stem wood away from the boat's natural shape (causing cracks I think).