The Bob Stay~Dolphin Broke!! Under the bow sprit on my 19.

[Craig Weis]

The dolphin stay/bob stay under the bow sprit that anchors at the tang/chainplate and shares the same fasteners with the bow eye has parted, broken, exploded, give way, and is now in two pieces.

I am asking anybody who sails a Com-Pac 19 that came with a factory bow sprit to please measure center to center from pin to pin how long is the stay??

I was out sailing in a pretty good blow Thursday afternoon when BANG!! from the bow. I could see from the cockpit that he bow sprit was undulating slightly as the headsail drove the boat. I heaved to in 93 foot of water, and going fwd I could see that the stay had broken right in the middle between the two wedged on pins and thingy's [can't thing of what that's called right now].

So while on the water I affixed a line 'tween the bow eye used to pull her up onto the trailer and up and around the anchor roller. What a pain and bumpy ride that was. But I managed to get that done well enough that the head stay was not going to pull the bow sprit up and out of the bow.

Stress I guess or maybe I ran a huge log over or something. Maybe I was grabbed by a seamonster or a ballistic missile submarine's towed array. I have no idea.

So please, somebody post how long this stay ought to be so I can go have one made here in town ASAP.
If I call up Com-Pac [Hutchins] they'll send me a stay with a turnbuckle in it. I'd preferr a cleaner looking  stay with just two swedged ends.

Thank you all very much
skip.

[Tim Gardner]

Skip,  My Bobstay is 73cm from pin CL to pin CL. 

TG  -  '85 CP-19II # 323

[Bob23]

Skip:
   That turnbuckle comes in handy on my 23 when detentioning the rig to loosen the backstay to lower the mast. Glad to hear you averted a disaster. We don't need another one.
Bob23

[Craig Weis]

Tim and Bob. Exactly. My best guess was 73.5 cm. And 4 mm cable. So that's 5/32" dia.

I called Com-Pac in Florida. $95.00 + $15 to ship the 'Bob Stay' and it would come with a turnbuckle. Nope!

First I went to West Marine They wanted to send it out. Nope!

Then over to Yacht Works in Sturgeon Bay a couple of blocks away and they wanted to send me up to Sister bay. About 38 miles north. Nope!

So I went over to Great Lakes Yacht Service also a couple of blocks away. About 20 minutes to do the job. Two ss forks, a bit of sta-brite 1x19 ss cable and labor to hydro-swedge. After tax for the crooks $78.10. Good enough. And a charming gal who let me sit at her desk and wait as she told me about her life. I have the gift. What can I say?

Then the trick is to pull the bow sprit down and flush to where the factory had put it originally. While Comfort & Joy sat pier side and me floating in a dingy no less tied to the bow. And no idea how to do the 'pull down'.

I did not have a come-a-long. But "I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express" and simply took a very fat eyed dock line and pulled the eye of the line through the ships trailer eye and back up and over the ss flat bars bolted to the bow that hangs out past the bow and has the anchor roller between them. That would be under neath the shank of my stowed anchor. So the anchor had to be loosened up to get that fat line under the anchor. Can see the anchor shank deal in my Frappr pictures if anyone is taking notes.

Tied it off in a Spanish Rolling Half Hitch and inserted a longish and round shanked screw driver 'tween the fat dock lines looped over three times and started to twist the lines. Got to a point where I could see the bow sprit being pulled down but I didn't have enough arm strength to twist the screw driver any more. I need more leverage. So I snapped clamped the Vise Grip on to the end of the phlips and that gave me enough leverage that I could pull her down that last 1/4 inch. By tilting the screw driver up it would clear the bow. And by pulling the screw driver down it would lodge perilously on the hull and hold the twist. I had visions of the darn thing letting go and poking through my eye ball. That didn't happen.

With the bottom fork pinned in the chain plate the top fork missed the 1/4" pin hole by an 1/16". So I drove in a smaller shanked screw driver and levered it through the fork and the hole. That scooted the fork up closer to a fit.  But still no pin fit. So I took the Vice Grip and snapped clamped the fork hard on to the tang and pulled out the small screw driver. Almost home. Using a 1/4" shanked philips I hammered that clean through both the fork and the hole. Re clamped and had fit the pin through the fork. Finished it off with circle clips each end. Not cotter pins. I'm guessing I have 100+ pounds tention on the bob stay. But the chain plate will releave some of that as it relaxes a bit and the head of the pin finds a home closer the the hull's bow. I had to bend the chain plate out to get the pin in. Pin head facing the bow. More work but more proper. I placed a 'rubber bumper 'tween the pin head and the fiberglass hull. No glass chipping allowed.

Thank you for your efforts. We concur on the length. I guess I don't detention the Bob Stay [the factory never put a turnbuckle in so I shall not either] to lower the mast. Just loosen the back stay, pull the Harkin furler pin and walk her down. Never take the side stays off.

The idea to twist up the line came from the Cub Scouts as our den made rubber band powered paddle wheeled boats. It's amazing how 12 inches of rubber can be wound into an inch and contain all that energy to drive our boats to the other side of the pond.
skip.