A beautiful spot for bowsprit repairs

A super simple motor over to Isla Coronado gave Jack a taste of sailing Strikhedonia. We dropped the hook with six other boats and settled in for a bit of relaxation time.

The bees arrived which meant a scramble to install all of the screens. As evening approached Shalise took the paddleboard which motivated me to begin another boat project…

In Mazatlan I had a bunch of fiberglass chips and paint corrosion repaired. This included removal of the bowsprit to address corrosion on the bracket and bowsprit. Note to other Seawind owners, DO NOT remove the brackets, lest you might run into issues like me… The bowsprit was reinstalled and worked fine on the trip to Barra and back. However, when I went to deploy the bowsprit departing Mazatlan it ripped off. Fuck, I lost my favorite sail (screecher).

The issue, I think, was the bracket was riveted on (like the factory install) but instead of UV4000 adhesive the reinstallation only a gasket material was used to prevent chafing. I questioned this but was told it was no problem, guess I was right to question it… It could also have been the wrong rivets.

Jack brought me 5/16” bolts and washers and helped me with the repair. Planning to just get the project started we drilled and tapped the holes in the crossbeam. However, once started I couldn’t stop so on we went drilling out the holes in the brackets. Coated with a generous amount of 3M UV4000, we tightened everything down. The brackets had been bent when the bowsprit was ripped off which made it a bit more challenging. With effort, time, and tools we managed to get the bowsprint remounted and the adhesive cleaned up.

At this point I decided it was best to deploy the screecher so up it went, which better set the brackets squeezing out a bit more adhesive. Thinking I was done, I cleaned up only to notice I had flipped the bowsprit before installation which twisted the continuous furler lines. Ugh. Not a big deal but required removing the guiding blocks for the lines and rotating them 360 degrees. Three hours later Jack and I had a solid screecher ready for sailing!

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