Bowsprit / Top mast

This weekend I decided to tackle that last two spars on the boat: The bowsprit and the top mast. First step was to mark the tapers on the cedar staves. Both of them taper from 32mm to 15 mm with the top mast being asymmetrical and the bowsprit being symmetrical. I used the 8' level for a straight edge which did the job just fine! The only thing I had to be careful about was that a few of the staves have started to warp and have gotten a small horizontal bend in them, so I had to make sure that they where straight when I marked the line.

I ended up following Dudley's instructions and marked two staves on opposite faces and them clamped all four together and used a #5 plane to shape the wood to the line.

After that I re-set up the mast support and used it as a cradle for both the spars. I performed a test fit of the pieces prior to the glue up.

Bowsprit being test fitted

Top Mast being test fitted

A Couple of interesting observations:

Firstly the plans does not give a core section for the end of the bowsprit (There really is not a lot of information on it) - It is the same as the top section of the mast.

Secondly the dimensions on the plan for the top mast middle core section where the spinnaker block attaches is too small of a diameter. I ended up using a spare piece of the mast core and planed it down to size by trial and error method until I had a snug fit.

I finished up with epoxying everything together with my slow setting epoxy. It's amazing how much of the stuff you go through for this particular operation! Similarly to the boom and the mast I ended up using a combination of 14" long zip ties and clamps to hold everything together while it set up.

Top Mast setting up

Bowsprit setting up

I will let this set up for a couple of days and then start my planning operation to make the spars round. I picked up a Bosch power planner for the job. Will see how well it does!