CP 16 Bow Sprit Repair

[stephen]

I'm a new owner of a 1986 16/2.  I've had the boat about two weeks and am having a lot of fun preparing it for the season.

Overall, the boat is in great shape.  The previous owner was also the original owner and he maintained the boat well.

One of the few problems I fixed was a broken wood insert for the bowsprit.  While taking it off of the frame I discovered why it had split.  The frame rocks up and down about a half an inch when held firmly at the tip where the anchor chain roller is.  The bottom of the insert rested on the bolts that cap the rub-rail joint.

At first I thought that the four bolts that attach it to the bow might be loose.  What I found was that the bolt holes in the fiberglass were worn.  When I crawled into the chain locker to remove the nuts from the four bolts, I was surprised to discover that there were no backing plates for the bolts.  Structurally, the fiberglass is not sufficient to support the four bolts with washers only, especially when the bowsprit is not supported by the forestay.  The reason the bowsprit insert broke was because when the bowsprit frame became loose and rock downward, the back/bottom/center edge of the wood insert rested on the cap to the rub-rail joint and it then split the insert along the grain.  (I carved out the bottom, back edge of the new wood insert so that it would rest evenly on the rub-rail cap and the rub-rail.)

The play in the bowsprit frame must have happened over a period of years. Most likely  when the bowsprit, while not supported by the forestay, might have been stepped on or used to maneuver the bow onto or off of the trailer.  The four bolts that hold the bowsprit frame in place, and pass through the bow rail just above the rub rail, only had washers on the inside where the nut was fastened.  After calling Hutchins I found that the larger boats have backing plates.

What I've had to do was remove the bowsprit frame.  Patch and fill the mounting bolt holes.  Drill new holes. And reattach the bowsprit with two stainless steel baking plates, supporting the four attachment bolts.

I made the backing plates out of 1"x 6" x 1/8" stainless steel strapping. I then drilled 5/8" holes 3 ½" on center to match the mounting hole in the bowsprit frame. It's all back together and as solid as a rock. The total cost for the stainless steel backing plates $5.25.

If you're thinking about installing a bowsprit to a 16, adding backing plates will insure that the modification lasts.

[saillover]

thanks Stephen, i have a cracked pow sprit insert which seems to have a similar problem. I will explore further and see if the blacking plate will help.

[multimedia_smith]

I think what Stephen was getting at was not just the backing plate, but the fact that the wood is "high bottoming out" on the bold heads and needs to be ground at those points of contact to allow for an even contact...

What I'd like to know is... how did you drill the stainless?  I recently made a set of "lower shrouds" for the 16 and attached them with a stainless chain plate sandwiched between the mast and the spreader mounting point.  After burning a couple of bits, I went to our local friendly hardware store to buy a heavy duty bit... they not only sold me the bit, but they drilled the holes for me with their drill press.  The trick was that they moved the belt drives to the slowest possible speed on the drill.
I realized that my problem was not so much with the bits, but rather the high speed of my hand drill.

My bow sprit insert too is cracked... thanks for posting on this fix... I'll add it to my list of "downtime" projects.

Happy sailing
Dale