J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Bowsprit!

Hey all!

Vic suggested I make a dedicated post about my bowsprit project, so here it is.

For over a year now I've been flying a secondhand asymmetrical spinnaker on Ananda, tacked to an ATN Tacker and set/doused from an ATN Sock. While I don't fly a symmetric spinnaker and thus can't comment on relative performance, I have greatly appreciated its simplicity and potential on my boat.

To truly unlock this sail, though, I've been looking at adding an aftermarket bowsprit. My sailmaker feels this is really a necessity for strong deep downwind performance, the point of sail that I care about the most. For a long time I was stymied by the J/30's cluttered bow and inward-angled bow pulpit supports, a problem exacerbated by my roller furling drum.

Then my sailmaker found out about the A-Sprit, a new bowsprit design, and put me in touch with its creator. It's a carbon fiber V which bolts to a "hinge", a smaller tube riding in a larger fiberglass tube installed through the bow itself (imagine a nose ring piercing). A bobstay pulls down against the spinnaker tack. This bypasses all the clutter at the bow, doesn't require mounting brackets on deck, and the supported sprit can even be used to tack a Code 0.

So I bit the bullet and ordered one. Henry, the creator, happened to be in the bay area and came to my boat to assist with the install. Here's the results:



The sprit looks very simple from the outside. Note the line holding it up - it would swing down and hang vertically if not for that. I plan on experimenting with elastic attachments to the bow pulpit that pull the sprit up when not in use, as well as different tensioning arrangements for the bobstay.


Inside the forepeak, you can see the tube passing through. We epoxied it in place with MarineTex, which is a little easier to work with in an overhead environment than thickened epoxy.

I'll post more pictures when I get the thing rigged and have a sail flying from it!

if the line arrests downward travel, is gravity arresting upward? what happens when a big sail is attached, just let it rotate up?

There's a proper bobstay which opposes the upward pull of the spinnaker.

I should have mentioned that the line in the picture is just temporary. I plan to stow the sprit rotated upwards (it should tuck nicely under the bow pulpit). Current plan is to tie on some shock cord that will pull it into stowed position when the bobstay is eased.

Great ... I know one of our J/30s in RI added a bowsprit, but then his marina tacked on the length to his boat length charge ... so he keeps it off unless he is has a longer trip in mind. This folding up sounds like that would be useful. Can always wing on wing with A spin although the angle is narrow.

when clicking on the photo we can see the anchor for the bob stay.

Here is the kite that Pineapple Sails designed for me to use on the sprit:




67 sqm / 721 sqft. This is very close to the class spec for a symmetrical spinnaker size, I imagine an asym with the class defined area would work just fine.