i have been doing a little work out on my sprit, installing 3
footropes of 1/2" nylon, an eyesplice at the end lashed to the lower
lifeline, clovehitched to the whisker, hanging free on the
centerline,
then clovehitched and lashed on the other side as well.
now don’t tell anyone, but i was out there fiddling around after
completing this task and managed to fall off. fortunately i did not
straddle a footrope and caught myself by my arms on the sprit and the
lifeline and only went in to the ankles and was able to hoist myself
out quickly. having happened in the slip it was little worse than
annoying, but sobering to consider if this had been offshore,
singlehanded…
i have the jib on a furler, but still want to be able to switch
from the yankee to a lapper as needed in addition to hooking on the
tack of the drifter. i find things go better when sails and sailor
stay out of the sea.
now my question- what do people do about footropes or netting
under
the sprit? 3 footropes are apparently not enough. i bought a piece
of fishnet but could not get it arranged satisfactorily after fooling
with it for an hour. how about dropping the anchor? my CQR lives in
a holder to stbd with the standard double roller at the stemhead.
also, i noticed after the shock test that the pulpit was loose on
that one side. i just recently had it off and rebedded it. after my
fall, i refastened it with larger screws (changed from 12 x 1 1/2" to
14 x 2") and rebedded it. i recall one prior post of some rot at
this
point. i have some black stains in the wood here, but the look old
and the varnish film appears ok so i do not think i have a moisture
problem yet. next thing i might consider would be through-bolting
the
pulpit. any other ideas or things to ponder? thanks.
john churchill
BUCEPHALUS, bcc #65
Hi John,
Roger has a set of plans for bowsprit netting. I
think he mentioned that the plans came from another
BCC owner who forwarded the drawings to him. They
are a loose-woven fishnet style and have a cutout
designed into them so you can drop the anchor.
Mark Gearhart
Godspeed 108
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