Wow, David and Chris moved the bowsprit up to the deck and also lugged the housing of the windlass up there. The motor and bronze parts of the windlass are still sitting in a bin in the boat shed. That bin is so heavy that one person can hardly carry it.

When John and David planked Mahdee, they left “extra” planking closing in the area where the bowsprit goes so that it wouldn’t be too “open” when the time came to install the ‘sprit. This week, David fitted the ‘sprit and cut away the extra so that the fit was close but not so tight as to scrape paint off the ‘sprit as it is raised and lowered. We’re modifying the bowsprit and associated hardware so that the fixed forestay comes to the stem rather than the end of the bowsprit. Thus, the jibstay will be there just for that headsail, the bobstay will only hold that load and the whole bowsprit can be hinged up (shipped) so that the boat will be 10′ shorter. That 10′ equates to quite a dollar savings when fitting into a slip. At anywhere between $7 and $25/ ft / month slip fee, the cost of the mod is paid for very quickly! Not to mention that Mahdee’s sparred length is reduced from 67′ to 57′ with that and many more slips are available for a boat under 60’ than one over it.

When we considered this mod, we realized that we would also be adding a bit of safety to the rig. Originally, if the bobstay broke, the forestay slack would risk the entire rig coming down. Now, the risk is minimized as we intend double forestays–one on each side of the stem.

David working on the stem with the bowsprit balanced on the caprail and boat scaffold:

Carrying the windlass from the boatshed top to the deck requires “walking the plank” , see the narrow plank?:

In this pic, you can see the bowsprit in place, too:

The windlass case is sitting next to the spot it will be installed. It goes between the foot of the bowsprit and the scuttle housing.