Our 2004 h260 suffered from a lack of power on long runs off the wind with our rather small jib and B&R main. Attaching an asymmetrical sail directly to the bow plate would foul on my anchor and bow roller so I ventured into designing a 3' removable bow sprit. There are a few on the market but they would require it to be mounted over the anchor locker when deployed. I wanted unfettered access to my ground tackle, easy removal, single handed sail deployment/retrieval and enough strength to fly a 300sq' gennaker/asymmetrical on a broad reach in 10-12kts without a foredeck crewman.
(BOW SOCKET EPIPHANY)
After a dozen refinements and a few outright failures due to underestimating the load on windy/choppy days I've come to the perfect match so far on this boat. I used a carbon mast top from a windsurfing mast that I reinforced by inserting an oak dowel I'd buttered with thickened resin. It's stiff and handles the extreme load fine so far. The base is set into a bow socket I fabricated from 3 pieces of 3/16" SS plate and a SS tow ring from a ski boat. I cut out the rope tab inside the ring and the pole fits into it about 1/2" deep which allows slight side to side movement under load but will release if a stay breaks. The socket is tightly fitted over the decks nose section at the bow and shaped a bit like an upside down U. I ground a bit of a flat spot on the nose of the boat where the sprit would rest and through bolted the SS socket assy over the bow pulpit plate and down through the hull/deck joint.
(SPRIT & STAYS WITH GUSTO)
On the outward end of the sprit I used a 3/8" SS Eye, drilled in at an angle to accommodate the angle of the load for a straight pull to the mast spinnaker block. This main sprit eye will need to be welded closed due to the extreme loads. From this eye I also mounted two stays with turnbuckles that mount back on the port/starboard rails to SS eyes drilled through the deck/hull at an angle to allow for the angle of pull as much as possible. Down from the end of the sprit attach a 3-to-1 downhaul with low stretch spectra line. I had a single block w/ becket like a Harkin #167 down on the boats bow eye and a Harkin 2-to-1 with jam similar to a #244 tied on a short loop under the main sprit eye. Use only good quality SS cable and swage fittings set with about a 10degree rise and tension the downhaul rather aggressively because halyard tension is very taught on the furler.
(RIGGING NOT JUST RIGGED)
The stock mast block is plastic crap so don't even try it. Drill it out and replace it with a serious SS flush mount block for an internal halyard or mount an external bail and block. I think mine was a Garhauer piece. DO NOT mount a spinnaker/gennaker at the mast head on a 260, only use a mount roughly at the height of the side stay attachments and above the forestay. The furler I used is a Facnor FX900 continuous line furler. My sail was made to fit our 260 by Knighton sails out of Sarasota based on my rig and sprit dimensions at about 308sq'. You can't partially reef with this setup and it wouldn't matter anyway. If it's blowing more than a solid12kts this sail is far too big for this boat. The furling line runs in a loop back to the cockpit so I can easily deploy or retrieve it when single handing. Sheets are 5/16", running back to blocks with webbing strap set low at the stern rails and then routed up to my new ST winches. You'll need your winches if it's blowing over about 8kts.
There's probably more but I'm way long already so good luck if you go for it. There'll be more pics to come I'm sure. The 1st pic was an early mock up for measurements that failed but I'd wildly underestimated the load anyway so build it stronger than you think it'd need. If we're out for the weekend I'll leave this sail furled in place. It's the easiest to deploy and supplements the whole sail set well on an average day. Now I'm sorta running out of projects...but we'll see about that.
Aloha,
Mike and kelli
(BOW SOCKET EPIPHANY)
After a dozen refinements and a few outright failures due to underestimating the load on windy/choppy days I've come to the perfect match so far on this boat. I used a carbon mast top from a windsurfing mast that I reinforced by inserting an oak dowel I'd buttered with thickened resin. It's stiff and handles the extreme load fine so far. The base is set into a bow socket I fabricated from 3 pieces of 3/16" SS plate and a SS tow ring from a ski boat. I cut out the rope tab inside the ring and the pole fits into it about 1/2" deep which allows slight side to side movement under load but will release if a stay breaks. The socket is tightly fitted over the decks nose section at the bow and shaped a bit like an upside down U. I ground a bit of a flat spot on the nose of the boat where the sprit would rest and through bolted the SS socket assy over the bow pulpit plate and down through the hull/deck joint.
(SPRIT & STAYS WITH GUSTO)
On the outward end of the sprit I used a 3/8" SS Eye, drilled in at an angle to accommodate the angle of the load for a straight pull to the mast spinnaker block. This main sprit eye will need to be welded closed due to the extreme loads. From this eye I also mounted two stays with turnbuckles that mount back on the port/starboard rails to SS eyes drilled through the deck/hull at an angle to allow for the angle of pull as much as possible. Down from the end of the sprit attach a 3-to-1 downhaul with low stretch spectra line. I had a single block w/ becket like a Harkin #167 down on the boats bow eye and a Harkin 2-to-1 with jam similar to a #244 tied on a short loop under the main sprit eye. Use only good quality SS cable and swage fittings set with about a 10degree rise and tension the downhaul rather aggressively because halyard tension is very taught on the furler.
(RIGGING NOT JUST RIGGED)
The stock mast block is plastic crap so don't even try it. Drill it out and replace it with a serious SS flush mount block for an internal halyard or mount an external bail and block. I think mine was a Garhauer piece. DO NOT mount a spinnaker/gennaker at the mast head on a 260, only use a mount roughly at the height of the side stay attachments and above the forestay. The furler I used is a Facnor FX900 continuous line furler. My sail was made to fit our 260 by Knighton sails out of Sarasota based on my rig and sprit dimensions at about 308sq'. You can't partially reef with this setup and it wouldn't matter anyway. If it's blowing more than a solid12kts this sail is far too big for this boat. The furling line runs in a loop back to the cockpit so I can easily deploy or retrieve it when single handing. Sheets are 5/16", running back to blocks with webbing strap set low at the stern rails and then routed up to my new ST winches. You'll need your winches if it's blowing over about 8kts.
There's probably more but I'm way long already so good luck if you go for it. There'll be more pics to come I'm sure. The 1st pic was an early mock up for measurements that failed but I'd wildly underestimated the load anyway so build it stronger than you think it'd need. If we're out for the weekend I'll leave this sail furled in place. It's the easiest to deploy and supplements the whole sail set well on an average day. Now I'm sorta running out of projects...but we'll see about that.
Aloha,
Mike and kelli
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. I broke a bunch of rigging before I came down to something that I could easily remove from the boat, fly singlehanded and safely furl from the cockpit in under 30sec. It takes just about that long to remove the entire sprit too. It's a problem free, easily stowed design at this point.
