Buehler's Backyard Boatbuilding by George Buehler

Author:George Buehler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
Published: 1991-11-27T05:00:00+00:00

Figure 9/4.

(A) Bowsprit detail. Spend some time on this; few things can ruin a boat’s looks faster than a poorly proportioned or oddly angled ‘sprit. (B) One of the best things about a ’sprit is its ability to ease the handling of ground tackle. Here’s an easily fabricated anchor roller you can make from ¼ × 2-inch steel and a rubber boat-trailer roller. Mount it about 3 feet forward of the stem.

I think the ’sprit looks best when it follows the sheer line. I also like a pole ’sprit. I think the wide, planked ones seen on some production boats are dangerous in heavy weather. If the bow is plunging down into solid water, a wide ’sprit may well leave you, sometimes taking part of the forward deck and maybe even the mast with it. A round or rectangular pole offers little resistance to the water, and is unlikely to be knocked off by a wave.

The stem fitting will be easier to fit, and things will look better, if the ’sprit is the same width as the stem. Assuming the stem is made from a 6-by, then the ’sprit will be, too. If the hull has a lot of sheer, you might need to use a 6 × 8 or a 6 × 10.

Some people worry that rot can start under the ’sprit if it lays on the deck, so they leave the whole thing propped up in the air a bit. Idon’t. I don’t like the look, and I think that if you bed it well, there’s little danger of rot starting, especially when the plywood deck is protected by cloth and Arabol.

If the plans don’t give the ’sprit’s dimensions, it’s easy to eyeball it while making a pattern. The ’sprit will extend back to butt against the mooring post. So take a piece of ¼-inch ply—as long as the ’sprit and as wide as the material you’re using—and tack it to the post.

Prop up the pattern right at the stem until it looks like it’s following the sheer, then stand back and see how she lays. You’ll need to stand back quite a way to see it right. I’ve had to saw more than one hole in shop walls to eyeball something properly. Scribe the angle at which the pattern butts against the mooring post and mark the place where the pattern is flush with the stem.

At the spot where you raised the pattern to make it look right, measure down to the deck. If it was, say, 3 inches, saw a tapered cut, starting at 0 at the point the ’sprit hits the stem, to 3 inches at the end where it butts against the post. Prop it up and stand back and eyeball it again to make sure it lays right.

The ’sprit will look even better if you taper the bottom and sides from the stem face to the outer end. A powerplane does this nicely. Although naturally it depends on the size of the boat, the outer end generally looks pretty nice tapered down to, say, 2½ by 2½ to 3 by 3 inches.

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