Bowsprit Complete!

Last weekend, September 8, 2012 I was able to install my bowsprit. Did I take a picture of it installed...well no. Why you ask....because I forgot! I do have pictures of it installed...just not the whole thing. Keep reading and check out the pictures.

All told it has two coats of West Marine penetrating epoxy, two coats of primer Interlux primer  and four coats of Interlux one part polyurethane paint.

 

The picture above is when it was finally ready to be moved to the boat. I still have to do the platform. I will use Cetol light on it with gloss over that. Below is it sitting sideways waiting to be installed. I was doing the install by myself so I tied a halyard to it in case I dropped it over board!

I had bought a used anchor roller with a 4" bronze roller. I mounted that on the starboard side, moving the original roller to the port side. No they don't match, but does that really matter...I don't think so. If you think they should then go buy your own boat! LOL!

I did have to drill another hole in the bowsprit but I did not see that as being an issue. I had to temporarily mount the platforms so I could cut the port side one to allow room for the  port side roller. I used a small hand saw to make the cut through the teak platform being careful not to cut into my newly finished bowsprit.  Yeah...that didn't work so well. I cut a 1/8" deep groove into it. Dang...I hate that!

I filled it with epoxy and painted over it. So now my bowsprit has a blemish. (Like I did a Bristol job on the rest of it...yeah right.) Any way...I hauled it down to the boat and started to check that all the bolts would go in the holes, everything lines up etc. Now I had done this at the house, but one more check won't hurt. Things were a bit tighter than at the house and i did have to run a drill by hand through one of the bolt holes due to the build up of paint and epoxy. But it was no big deal and it was easy.

I ran the 3 bronze bolts through the bowsprit so I could mount the tapered piece to the bowsprit before I mounted it. I used a butyl tape that we use at work to seal the taper to the bowsprit and between the taper piece and the deck. (What the heck is the name for the "tapered piece"?) I used the butyl tape as I know for a fact that stuff sticks, is waterproof and lasts for decades in the sun. It is used for sealing flanged duct joints. You can see in the pictures below that the tape oozes out and can be cut or peeled off. Look at the forward most bolt in the top picture you can see what it looked like before I peeled it off. (The life caulk you see was used in the opening at the very peak where the sailsail bracket meets the teak.)

I did not mount the samson posts as I did not have the chainlocker bulkhead complete. That will be the next post. See you then!