bow eye position

[DanaDCole]

It's too late now for me, but how did everyone determine where to locate the noseblock? I made several very careful measurements on the scale drawing and came up with a method for locating it I thought would work but it turns out it is too low. I have not been able to come up with a combination of shackles that will make the bobstay tight, so for now I will have to use strong rope--don't want a sudden gust to pull the bowsprit hard up against the tip of the bow.

I plan to order a turnbuckle to integrate with the bobstay and have the bobstay cut to fit and so on by a local machinist who can attach the nicopress sleeves. I don't see any feasible way to get the shrouds and forestay all properly tuned without using turnbuckles on all three. Thanks to chaertl (Chris) I have two (free except for postage) SS turnbuckles already on the shrouds. To get them to fit easily I moved the chainplate locations back slightly--maybe 1/2" to 3/4". I don't think this will have much effect on how far the boom can travel. (Thanks again Chris. I don't want to get a third turnbuckle from you if you still have any though. For the bobstay I want to see if I can find a shorter one.)

[craig]

I don't know how much they will charge you to re-fashion the nicropress sleaves, but you can always order the tool that you need. It costs $40 and is available on Duckworks, Ebay, etc. I made mine a little too small and had to buy a larger shackle. Even so, I need to pull down hard to slightly bend the bowsprit to make it fit. I'm sure you can find a combination of one or two shackles to fit. Otherwise, you could always use a short length of rope like John recommended for the shrouds.

Locating the proper location for this piece of hardware was not easy though, I agree.

[DanaDCole]

Thanks Craig! The only nicropress tool I was able to locate was someting like $350. At that price I think the tool is definitely worth having. I'm going to Duckworks right now.

[chaertl]

Just PM'd you Dana.

[Bflat]

I'm wondering if the following procedure would be helpful to get the bow eye well positioned with proper bobstay tension:

Install the bow sprit to the boat
Attach the pre-made bobstay to its spot on the end of the bowsprit
Shackle the bow eye to the free end of the bobstay letting the whole works dangle from the end of the bowsprit
Swing it all up towards the bow to find where the bow eye lands on the bow and mark that location
Detach the bow eye from the bobstay and mount it at the mark on the bow

In short - let the bobstay determine where the bow eye should be rather than mounting the eye first and hoping that the bobstay length will be correct.

Before doing any of this one could even put a little weight on the end of the bowsprit to get a little "pre-bend" to it so that the bobstay is tight when the weight is removed (a very slight downward "steeve").

[DanaDCole]

Good idea. In my case I installed the bow eye long before ordering the sailing hardware though. Anyway, I have shortened the bobstay and installed a turnbuckle. Along with the two turnbuckles on the shrouds I have a much easier time tuning the rigging.

There is also a lucky advantage to having put the bow eye where I did: The bobstay passes untouched between the front roller and the winch when the boat is sitting on the trailer. That allows me to tune the rigging pretty well with the boat on the trailer. Then all I have to do when launching is disconnect the shackle, move the boat back a few inches, and reconnect it. No further adjustments should be necessary. (I'll find out today for sure.)