How to BUILD A BOWSPRIT for less than $400! [Ep48 RED SEAS]

[@jackechan1311]

😱but🤩when you finished! Since then, how many times have either of you stood on the bowsprit declaring yourself the Queen-King of the World......at least once I imagine.

[@RedSeas]

Haha probably should be a daily event. Between that and hanging from it like a sleepy leopard when the dolphins come to visit. It’s been a great upgrade

[@sailingkumatoo]

I nearly cried when you drilled the hull 😭 So brave! Anxious to see it in action, very unique ideas on putting it all together

[@RedSeas]

“Very Unique” sounds like something my maths teacher would say at parents evening lol. Yeah, it was a terrifying moment but think it will pay off. Hoping to give it the full test in the next few weeks.

[@KM2399]

Brilliant episode, you guys are most definitely Scottish! Daft as a brush and so funny together. Had a few chuckles during that episode. It comes through on the videos that you're living your best life. 😁🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@RedSeas]

I don’t know what you mean. I would call it a sunny disposition. But daft sums it up too 😂 we are having a laugh to be sure. Maybe someday we will get back to the motherland and do some west coast adventures. Have some saving up to do first tho. Flights ain’t cheap from the middle of nowhere. Cheers for watching again and giving us an excuse to think of home for a bit.

[@tonyfromaus7855]

On land they call it being a Shade Tree Mechanic. Fixing vehicles with fencing wire and saplings. Requires a bit of outside-the-square thinking. You guys have it in spades. Nice solutions. Love your work. Hope you have many downwind champagne sails with the new bowsprit. 👍🏼

[@RedSeas]

Cheers! I was taught to call it “Bodging” the art of making something using anything but the right tools lol. Here’s hoping we get the chance to play with the bowsprit soon enough.

[@davidwood4427]

Nice job guys, but .... (notice how there is always a 'but') unless you galvanically isolated the stainless mount plate to the front beam you WILL have issues. A liberal coating of Tefgel or similar on all dissimilar metals when mounting is essential, otherwise you will very quickly end up with a very large hole in your front beam. While it is being remounted it may also be prudent to upside those rivets to at least 1/4 monel, also Tefgel coated. You will need a much bigger rivet gun. Keep up the great vids.

[@RedSeas]

Hi David. Cheers for looking out for us. Good news is that the reason we repurposed the compression post and hinge bracket was exactly for this reason. They, like the cross bar, are aluminium. Good news as it means we have no dissimilar metals to worry about. That said, we have tefgel’d and rubber washer’d the large stainless 306 nut and bolt used to create the pin hinge. It’s a constant challenge onboard to keep potential (and likely) corrosion to a minimum. Lots of fun but thanks for the hawk eyes looking to keep us out of trouble.

[@licencetoswill]

it's alloy to alloy.

[@rmarsh3309]

Impressive work guys. Well done! Now I want one too!

[@RedSeas]

Well if we can do it… just saying, someone of your knowledge and abilities shouldn’t have any trouble. 😆

[@glennedwards1449]

In keeping with scribing a curve and using primary school methods you could rough cut some cardboard then use Plasticine to fill in the gaps and transfer that to a better surface. Alternately they do sell tools which are very cheap and would take 2 seconds they are normally in the flooring section of DIY shops. However it does look as if your mate did a fantastic job of changing that straight surface to a curved one

[@RedSeas]

Good call on the plasticine. Perhaps we will search the next hardware store for something. Out here it’s often hard to find the right materials let alone tools. Most islands main supermarket is smaller than a corner shop in other parts of the world. Lol That welding job was so impressive given how amateur our information was 😂

[@dirk3730]

Well done!

[@RedSeas]

Cheers! It’s creative boat improvements like this that keep our brains ticking I think

[@Sailing_ShoobieDoobie]

Fun video! I’ve only had time to watch this one so far, but immediately subscribed to your channel. Cheers, D

[@RedSeas]

wow. thank you. hope you enjoy the adventure from the beginning (it would probably explain a few things lol)

[@latitudeash]

Ahh, I just got it, you can retract the pole upwards hence no extra blocking fees. Very cleaver

[@RedSeas]

That’s the idea at least 😜

[@dutchglobetrotter4513]

Okay you guys are brave, drilling holes near the waterline when on anchor. Great job I must say, it almost looks like it was done at the factory.

[@RedSeas]

Haha I’m glad it looks good on camera. We were pretty worried actually doing the Install. Thought we were going to lose our drill to the sea gods a few times let alone the entire boat. Think we got away with it this time.

[@lifesailinc.7886]

you guys are fun

[@RedSeas]

Haha cheers! I think 🤔

[@herberthahn6964]

Difficult shapes can be traced using a bearing marker in the center.

[@RedSeas]

Good tip. As you saw, the simplest solution is always the best. We just need to get faster at seeing it 😂

[@shaneshaw1895]

looks great, well done!

[@RedSeas]

Cheers. It was a bit of an experiment but hopefully makes down wind and light wind sailing that much more fun.

[@Hotzenplotz1]

The hull has no core in the bow, therefore this would be the right place to mount the pad eye as balsa is first compressible and second not water proof. It will root and the pad eye may rip off. Core is only good for creating stiffness on big surfaces smaller areas will not profit from core and additionally balsa would be hard to shape into the mold during production. I strongly suggest to dismount the pad eyes on the hull again, drill much bigger holes, big enough to fit the screws into and fill the holes with epoxy. Then drill holes again for the bolts and seal them well. This way you'd make the core root proof and compression proof the same time. A naval architect.

[@RedSeas]

Thanks Andre. All very safe advice. As it happens, we actually did most of what you outline as part of the installation we just couldn’t find a good way to show the epoxying of the drilled holes. They were filled with epoxy and re-drilled to ensure the core has no exposure to the elements. The area we fitted the pad eyes is actually designated in the hull design and has an “indentation” on the inner surface of the hull, where we fitted the G10 boards to disperse the load across a much larger area with no flex. It’s certainly been an adventure figuring all this out and discussing with various shipbuilders and riggers to keep us roughly on track but input in these comments is exactly why we release these videos to KZbin. It’s invaluable gaining from the knowledge and wisdom of everyone who watches our journey. Thanks

[@Hotzenplotz1]

@@RedSeas So that's great. Forget about my comment... 😀

[@rickkwitkoski1976]

A much easier way to get that crossbar profile would be to mold a soft material to it, something that can be hardened! And now you need to attach a seat to the bowsprit.

[@RedSeas]

Good shout. We actually found that the end of the cross bar was open anyway so we got the exact profile by simply holding a piece of cardboard up to the end and a pen outline. 😂 A seat sounds like a fun challenge. We have to two seats on the bows but one of the sprit would be interesting 🤔

[@mikehinson4062]

in the Army, we called those strings "dummy cords". attach them to anything that you wanted to keep and the other end too your body. then when you drop it, it stays attached to your body. some guys looked like they had been in a spaghetti fight

[@RedSeas]

😂 sounds like when I do work up the mast. I could put a Chinese restaurant out of business with the number of noodles hanging off me sometimes. 😂

[@herberthahn6964]

I liked the backing on the pad eyes. I would be using a metal ring with through bolts under the access hole, for lateral crush strength as the subdeck strength is compromised due to hole.

[@RedSeas]

Yeah, it was a big concern for us too. Thankfully a fellow cruiser had gifted us some G10 to use there. We would have preferred to glass it in place to make up for the hole but, as you saw, the working space wouldn’t really have allowed for that easily. Still happy with the results

[@dubuandmore7907]

Good idee and of sure you safe some money. ✌️

[@RedSeas]

Cheers! Yeah it was a super saving given how much some people want to charge for it

[@MrBobVick]

Assume you used what we call Finder washers here in the US, oversized washers to spread the load? Looks good just did not see the final interior install.

[@RedSeas]

Haven’t heard them called that before but sounds exactly like the washers we used. Basically as big as we could go without overlapping them 😂 Was a stressful process making more holes in the boat but so far I think it paid off.

[@MrBobVick]

@@RedSeas I figured you would do all you could do the beef up the inside. I had to pop the tops on my beach cat to install a spinnaker pole, not a project for the faint of heart.

[@stephentuttle4737]

Looks like it is not quite in line with the beam that supports the trampolines. This should be an easy adjustment given the way you have rigged the pole. Well done.

[@RedSeas]

Well spotted. Yeah, it was a bit of a hurried trim as we were so excited to show it off. As you say, the good news is we can just ease the halyard and tighten the downhauls to trim it up properly. Looking forward to a proper test…and a dolphin lookout test 😆

[@latitudeash]

Had to skip to now and watch. I will also try to catch up on the stuff I missed to date.

[@RedSeas]

Haha nice one. The temptation to skip ahead was too much? Hope we don’t throw out any spoilers for you.

[@latitudeash]

Bri you need a Bluepeter badge 🤣😂

[@RedSeas]

Not gonna lie - that’s my lifelong dream 😂

[@wandak7577]

there is a tiny little tool called a contour gage that would have taken that profile and given you an exact copy in 5 seconds

[@RedSeas]

I’m the first to try and blame my tools lol. As you saw, in the end it was even simpler than we thought 😀

[@latitudeash]

Those 4 tinny re it’s will not hold the wind/ bow sprits. I would put in some threaded bolts after you thread the bow sprit with a tap.

[@RedSeas]

Not a bad idea. We smashed in a bunch of rivets mainly because the forces are directly on the end of the bar when in use. That said, it’s in testing phase so we may well have to beef it up a bit

[@latitudeash]

Iain, less cakes next time. I told you that cake game was bad for you 😜

[@RedSeas]

But Brioni’s cakes are sooo good 😊

[@latitudeash]

If Bri annoy’s you you can make her walk the plank/ bow spree… 😂

[@RedSeas]

Haha. I suppose it doubles as that and a dolphin lookout. 😃

[@gr4yz4]

That's totally amazing - lots of really hard work, maths and scribing in order to ..eh get a pole thing on the front so you can... stand on.. fish from.. ram passing ferries.. ... ok What's a Bowsprit for? Wikipedia isn't helping me. #landlubber

[@RedSeas]

Haha. This comment got held for review. You must be trolling us. 😂 We are still working on showing off what it actually does as we have to find a special part to show it off (and they cost a fortune so we are hunting a 2nd hand one). In short, a bow sprit is a pole that makes the front of the boat longer, we can suspend a sail between the top of the mast and the end of the bow sprit which can be much larger than the Genoa we normally use as the foresail. It means we can sail in lighter winds as the bigger sail will catch more wind or more importantly for us, we can sail in the same direction as the wind safely at night as one person can deploy and stow that huge sail from the cockpit…once we find the special part that is. {RedSeasWiki entry#1}

[@nuur2825]

Why do that at all? Not trying to rag but i just don't get it.

[@RedSeas]

With a bow sprit we can fly a spinnaker and/Gennaker which is super helpful for downwind sailing and lighter winds. It’s a bit of a luxury but for some of the passages we do, it’s the kind of thing that can save days of potential risks with bad weather. Good question tho

[@nuur2825]

@RedSeas Thanks for the reply! Been binge watching your videos keep up the good work!

[@RedSeas]

Cool. Thanks for working thru the Eps. It’s been a wild ride. Still have to pinch ourselves every so often. 😊

[@dietmarsalto5472]

Sorry to say that; the hatches are dangerous they are not strong enough if there is water moving in the compartment. You can by special ones for this usage in the marine market. Please change them, I know of a boat that nearly sunk because of this. Sorry again.

[@RedSeas]

Appreciate the insight for sure. We had checked them out when we were buying them. They are actually fully gasket sealed and locking (didn’t really come across in the video) so we were told they could do the job. That said, we are always open to new ideas. The crash lockers in Indioko are a bit of a funny situation. The leopard 47 can actually have both lockers filled to the top with sea water and still sail. The combination of bulsa core, native buoyancy and cat design somehow defeats physics (I know I dot trust that either). But as you say, we should check them out. At least they aren’t hard to switch out if we have to. 😃

[@latitudeash]

This will mean you have to pay an extra 4 feet of docking fee’s 🤑

[@RedSeas]

We had to make it swing for a reason 😆