Bob Stay and Whisker Stays

[Ian McColgin]

If you must have a turnbuckle, keep it up under the bowsprit where it's less subject to corrosion. Better yet if you can make the splice with reasonable accuracy or perhaps adjust the cranse iron or paired fork a little, no turnbuckle. Heave the sprit down with some hanging weights and draw the parts together by pulling with turnbuckle or come-along on a very strong selvagee on the splice and led to a very solid point in line with the stay's landing.

Tension adjustment will then be handled by the jib stay, as it should be, and you have one less part. The only problem with this method is getting enough strain that you strain the stay enough that when you hook up and crank in the jib stay you don't get the sprit pointing skyward. The bow sprits on my boats could be stove down almost a half inch with a few hundred pounds hanging on the end so it only takes a 100# pull to make the wire fit right. Once the thing was hooked up and the jib stay fastened, the sprit was back to nearly straight - just an aesthetic litte steve-down to it.

G'luck

[April]

Hmm maybe I won't have to mess with adjustments much you see I do not have a cransiron nor does my bowsprit move at all! It is fitted through the bullworks and under the caprail. it nests upon a teak curved step on the deck before it goes through the samson posts.

I am going to give the 3/8 a try.... it will be like wrestling with an anaconda to get that 4 inch oval for the strop. I might make it a bit bigger as it won't be hanging downward like the mast soft eyes... I can then just use some seizing to make it the right size. Other than bronze screws for locust wood and lignum cheeks and of course the bronze bolts for the samson posts, no other metals have been in this bow sprit or on it. I do have some bronze small rollers but they connect by screwing opposite and into each other through the bowsprit. The masts and bow sprit are all solid wood. The bowsprit is spruce and nicely light...those masts are fir and very very heavy!

This is actually another problem I face as this boat had no depth transducer nor wire into the masts. Did get a simple transducer which will mean minimum drilling into the hull... the stem is 11.5 inches thick and there are huge floor timbers. I will drill with a long 1/8 th drill bit and then use a 2 inch Forstner to place it with some goo.

I worked so hard on those masts (others too)... I can't bear to see any holes in it. I wish they made solar nav lights which could be turned on and off... I did find some but they were kinda ugly and around 2 K a piece. The remote was another 2K.

Truly this boat is just the way she was launched. I have put her back to her previous name and her masts are varnished again.

Well I had better get on with the anaconda.

[April]

the wire did not like it. I could do a nice big soft eye but it hated anything near a 6 inch diameter circle. The bow sprit is around 3 and a half inches where that thing would go and there was no way I could do it without hurting the wire.

I have never tried 7 x 19 but I will see how it goes. surely there is a kinder strop I could make? It will have to be parceled and served anyway....?

[seawolf]

April,
I heard of your project from Austin at the club. I often get on spar talk and saw your post.
Good luck and I will get in touch with you to possibly drop by to take some photos.
I am now the historian for this year.
Bob Kelly
Volador
1962 Columbia 29

[April]

sure, the boat is still inside she is very pretty! I am supposed to take pictures for S and S and also for a few magazines. I want to wait for the before and after affect. Just looking back on the pictures I have makes me grab for Advil.

Well I made a ton of 1 x 19 strops! LOL... well it is the best way to learn I suppose! They will make great ring toss pieces! There is no way 1 x 19 likes to be crunched and turned like that. I had never tried so I just didn't know. I now understand why small diameter strops are made with 7 x 19. I was so proud of myself for laying out 50 ft lengths in my house and taking each piece out so I could then weave them one at a time.... I couldn't stop. My hands are black.

The stiff circles are pretty much worthless.... Oh I could use them to stiffen up some cloth bucket I suppose. This was a very good learning exercise. 1 x 19 is fine for large soft eyes and it is so smooth and shiny but for a strop it is ridiculous. I can use small diameter wire if the strop is large enough but since I have to cover it I might as well just get 7x19.

This project has been tuition in many ways! .