Installation of a bowsprit

We fly our asymmetric spinnaker frequently and normally attach the tackline on the anchor roller. Of course this leads to tangled lines on the anchor during gybes. In the heart of winter I decided to cheer myself up by ordering a bowsprit from Catalina Direct, that is manufactured by Selden.

There were three major steps to installation:

Attach an adapter to one of the anchor rollers to hold the bowsprit.

Attach two padeyes to the deck for attachment of the inboard end of bowsprit – one for the retracted position and the other for the extended position.

Couple the inboard adapter, which connects to the padeyes, to the bowsprit with pop rivets.

Most of the process was simple except for two steps. Drilling through the stainless steel anchor holder (used three bits for that) to attach the outboard adapter and then attaching the pop rivets. You might ask why the latter was so difficult. I have learned that hardware stores only stock pop rivet guns for rivets up to 3/16th of an inch. The rivets that come with the bowsprit are ¼ inch rivets. I tried to support local stores by driving around and getting a rivet gun locally but finally broke down and ordered from Amazon.

This afternoon I had the fun of inserting those rivets.

Beneath are some pictures of the assembled device. It will be a lot of fun to sail with. I am not sure we will go any faster but at least we look the part.  

 The bowsprit installed with a soft shackle (see previous post) and a block for the tackline

A close up of the outboard adapter with four bolts holding it to the anchor roller.