Retractable Bowsprit

[West Coast Cat]

Originally Posted by colemj

How far forward do you need to get the screecher? Manta uses a wire bridle connecting the bows of the two hulls. Mark

Thought this was a great suggestion but the Catana has a gull striker - upright on the crossbeam and the hulls are only inches forward of the crossbeam, when the angle to the headstay is brought into the calculation it just doeasn't work, but I really like that setup - great idea. In terms of how far forward I am looking at around four feet - unless someone has a better idea ( length ). Thanks again

[pbr]

The bridle system we used on the Manta worked without bowsprits because we had enough bow extending beyond the bow sprit to clear the head stay. However performance would have been increased if we were able to extend further, for the sake of simplicity and cost we found it to work well enough and particularly since the tack of the sail could be moved to windward when sailing deeper angles unlike a fixed sprit. On my next project the Fastwater 52, I installed retractable carbon sprits in each bow and used the same kind of bridle system as employed with the Manta. Pictures can be viewed at www.hytechmarine.com

[Aussiesuede]

[boom23]

The Antares catamarans advertise a stowable folding bowsprit.


Antares 44i: Unique Antares Features

[svlamorocha]

Originally Posted by boom23

The Antares catamarans advertise a stowable folding bowsprit.

Antares 44i: Unique Antares Features

The manual that is available in the Antares web page has a drawing of that folding bowsprit. Send me a PM if you want help to find it.
Charlie

[tamicatana]

It's not rocket surgery. Here's how Charlie Ogletree did his Catana

Cruisers & Sailing Forums - Charlie Ogletree on sprit fabrication

[Bruce626]

Interesting discussion. I am not an engineer nor very experienced yet but I have thought that adding a pair of prods - one on each bow - would enable me to fly an extra headsail. It looks to my inexperienced eye like I need to get a furler further forward to clear the pulpits. My catamaran is a bit odd in that it doesn't have a mainsail - it has only a forestay on a bridle arrangement to fly a jib. The bows of my catamaran are designed as crash compartments and flotation, and don't communicate with the rest of the hull (currently they are full of recycled plastic drink bottles). I have considered two designs: first, that the prods would be constructed of stainless pipe and hinged so that they fold down to just above the waterline. When raised for use a large stainless plate would project over the bow and prevent any upward movement - I have no idea how to build such a thing; the second option I have considered is to fix a length of stainless pipe in the crash compartment that will take the forces of the prod - which would again be a length of stainless pipe that would fit inside the larger pipe and slide out when needed (with a welded flange on the inside to keep it from sliding all the way out). This latter seems simpler but making a hole in the massive beam at the stem seems like a challenge, and, if it needed to be longer than the crash compartment there might be issues with making a hole through the forward bulkhead. Likely I won't do anything until I have actually tried to sail with the existing rig - the designer and others say it will sail fine downwind and other experienced sailors say it won't sail with just a headsail at all. Never having actually sailed a catamaran yet (only monos) I have no basis to dispute with either camp.

[Delancey]

If the center of effort of the sail plan is properly balanced fore and aft in relationship to the center of lateral resistance of the underwater portion of the hull, the boat will go to weather quite fine I'm sure, regardless of whether the sail plan uses a single mainsail or a single jib.

A nice thing about having a single jib is that none of the airflow is disturbed by the mast, likely the reason why his boat was designed the way it was.

[Bruce626]

tamicatana has just replied "If all you have is a jib, then downwind isn't your problem; you won't go to weather." ==> Perhaps, but my cruising area is the central Philippines - five months of the year the wind tends to come mainly from the northeast, and five months of the year the wind tends to come mainly from the southwest - with some variability in the two transitional months. My plan is to sail with the wind going up one side of an island - sailing only during the day within sight of land, and anchoring by 4pm every travel day. I expect to stay for a few days to a few weeks and then move on. When the seasons change i expect to sail back down the other side of the island; repeating the process until I have circumnavigated all the major islands in the Visayas (central Philippines). I have no idea as yet if I can make this work, but that is the plan until reality bites. I did eventually want to add a multipurpose radial headsail or Code 0 to improve performance in reaching and possibly a bit to windward - hence my interest in more wire at the bow.

[cwyckham]

You can buy of the shelf retractable bowsprits that will bolt in place if the catana has a gangway splitting the trampoline. Not sure if it does?

[JRMarine]

Attached is a picture of the sprit I made for my Maine Cat. Its a 1-line retracting system that also (though more complicated) could support articulation under sail. I machined this out of aluminum. Basically 1 bridle line is tied from the tip of the sprit, down to an eye on the lower forward portion of my starboard hull. This stay is a fixed length. Then the port side bridle line is tied off at the tip of the sprit and goes thru (but not tied off) the eye on the lower forward portion of the port hull and turns thru the eye and comes up to a cleat. I also have a safety line the connects the seagull striker to the sprit to keep it from dropping into the water when the sail is dropped. To fold, I just uncleat the port side line and the sprit folds all the way to the starboard side. I use the starboard bridle line to tied it off to the cross beam. I can leave the sail hoisted and do this too, I just let off on the halyard a little.