Pensacola FL Sailing Blog - sailingnightwatch

About two years after the repair, I noticed that when using a wire to clean out the area where the bowsprit went through the hull, I could poke the wire into the wood.   Expletives. 

The bowsprit is 10’ long and 8”x6” at it’s largest point, where it goes through the hull.  I could tell by my work with the one plank that this was a bigger job then I wanted to do myself.  I contracted with one of the local marine wood workers to do the work.  I have know him for a while and he got involved more as a favor then a prudent business decision.  This was not a difficult job to do, just a heavy back breaking job.  The bow sprit had a stem head fitting that holds two large anchor rollers, the fitting for a 1” chromed staysail-stay attachment, a large chromed bronze cleat and the head stay.  When we did get this fitting off after removal of the bowsprit, it had to weigh 30-40 pounds.  The inside of the bowsprit is held in place with 4 bolts going through a kingpost style cleat and 4 bolts holding the staysail-stay in place.  These are through bolted through the deck and heavy backing plate in the anchor locker.  We used the topping lift (the only line that goes to the masthead) to hold up the bowsprit while we beat it out through the hole with a large sledge hammer.