I finally finished the bowsprit and reinstalled it on Galena. She looks so much better with her nose than without.

The weather was fantastic and so there were several of my dock-mates on hand to help. Billy (s/v Betterdays), Terry (s/v Cloud Nine), and Gene (s/v SeaWoof) were all helpful in not only lifting the bowsprit into place, but also in solving the many inevitably problems that surfaced as I tried to bolt it into place.

We assembled the platform to the bowsprit and tied a halyard to each end just so we wouldn't drop it. With the platform in place it weighed in at about 75-lbs.



Then Terry and I swung it into place on Galena's bow. Once it was wedged between the Samson posts it stayed in position with the forward end hanging from the jib halyard.



The bowsprit is attached using three half-inch bronze carriage bolts. They go through the deck and into the chain locker below. There is also a bronze ring-bolt that carries the intermediate forestay to the bow tang below the bowsprit. These four bolt holes in the bowsprit had to align perfectly with the existing holes in the boat.



Since I was re-using the teak top trim piece, I used it as the template for the placement of the holes. But the bowsprit is over 5" thick. And my vertical alignment was not quite perfect. Even though I had marked and drilled the holes on the bottom of the bowsprit, once in place we found that the aft-most bolt was just a little (1/16") off. After much debate between the four of us on how to resolve this, how to get all of the bolts into their holes, we came up with a series of methods. Fortunately the first one worked. We kept the forward (ring-bolt into bow tang) nut in place and pushed down on the forward end of the bowsprit, tilting the aft end up. That allowed the bolt to angle just far enough aft to find the hole. Much pounding and twisting of nuts later the bowsprit was in place

Of course, while laying on my back stretching to reach the forward most bolt as it protruded into the top of the chain locker, I accidentally dropped the bronze nut into the pile of chain. Do you know how fast and completely a nut disappears into 300-feet of chain? Do you know how hard it is to buy a 1/2" bronze nut in this place? After a trip to the local marine and hardware stores I realized I would have to haul all that chain up out of the locker to recover the nut. But with one last search of the nooks and crannies I found the nut nestled in amoung the links.

All of that assmbly stuff took about 3 hours. It was enough work for one day. I blame the short days of winter with my decision to stop work and hit the bar for a couple of cold ones.

The next day, after recovering from a nasty hangover, I reinstalled the rigging, the pulpit, lifelines, one of the anchors, and generally cleared the foredeck so she looks a bit more seaworthy.

I found that one of the whisker stay turnbuckles was broken. That is, the toggle on the left-hand end was turning on the threaded shaft. A quick trip to the local West Marine disclosed that a new turnbuckle would cost a whooping $57. But just the T-bolt would only cost $17. And they happened to have the left-handed one in the proper size for me.


The whisker stays were new. The old ones have become corroded and frayed. I had the people at Chesapeake Rigging make up a new set for me. The cost was a bit much at $180. But it's a one-time cost; these should last as long as the boat. And they did a fine job.

After I tightened up everything I noticed that I had put one of the turnbuckles on 'backwards.' As a general rule of thumb, the turnbuckle should be affixed so that the right-hand thread is attached to the 'fixed' tang and the left-hand thread attached to the wire. That provides a more intuitive and consistent direction when adjusting the tension. I'll have to remove and reinstall that turnbuckle sometime soon, before I forget. Once the rigging settles, I'll also have to remember to install the codder pins to prevent the turnbuckles from loosening.



All that effort resulted in yet another trip to the local pub to recover our strength. Yes, Terry was a bad influence on me all weekend.