Mike,

I laminated my new Boomkin planks from 1" x 6" Douglas Fir (3 boards thick), cut to size, and fiberglassed them all around. 

Materials:

Qty 2: 16' 1" x 6" clear Dougy Fir ($50)

12' x 14" 6 oz. fiberglass, and epoxy/resin (~$35)

Probably just as strong (maybe stronger), and I bet will last just as long.  Nothing lasts forever, and even if I have to replace every 10-15 years, I'm still money ahead.  They turned out amazingly well, and beautiful.  Pictures will end up on my blog soon.  Email for details.

T.

Michael Abrain,

if you live in the Olympia Wa area give me call. One of my numbers is listed. I do not believe in wooden bow sprits, wooden boomkins and tanbark sails with white handstiched patches. A stainless steel  boomkin allows for attaching a mast for a wind generator, solar panels etc. I built the bow sprit and boom kin from surplus pipe I found in the scrap yards down in LA and had the supplier for the Islander 43 bend them and weld railings on the sprit. Then the Rail Maker people electro polished the whole thing in two dippings because the bowsprit was too large. I carried the bowsprit about 100lbs by myself to the boat and installed it as I also did the boomkin. They are much better than those old fashioned wooden battering rams, remember a fully loaded live aboard W32 weighs around 10 tons! Never have anybody try to stop a W32 sitting on the dock try to stop the boat with their feet unless they want to live in a wheelchair the rest of their lives!

My boat is hidden (sort of) in Olympia. you can see what my version looks like.

P.S. An "A" frame bow sprit is much nicer than that wooden spike. I used to sit on th bow for hours watching the little striped fish swim ahead in pressure wave of the boat, or try to take a picture of porpoises ( they are camera shy), get the feeling of being a couple feet ahead of the boat. The boomkin should have something to simulate at least a transom, a Westsail with a transom would have much more room. I have been hit with waves from astern during a storm where the hull was vibrating while under full reef. ( My mainsail ripped for another reason, my mistake though). I dropped anchor in 6000feet of water to slow down, but had not enough scope to stop the boat(ha ha).

Carl Schafer:

I do not have the abilty to post pictures at this point as I am recovering frm a major hack attack on my computer. I'll have the IT person show me how to post them.

I can tell you this: The W42/43 has the same thing. I found those tubes while looking for propellers for my other boat and I think that they were 316SS as they were marked. I had the longer one bent  and I took that piece back to fit the "V" to measure the ends for their width as I had already determined that they reached into the hawse pipe area on the sides. Then I dummy set up the "V" and measured the location of the tangs that the forestay is attached. I attached tabs and closed of the end of the "V" frame. I made two small plates with a clevis each to through bolt on the side of the hull for the attachment of the bowsprit. Back to the boat, measured for the cross bar that holds the bow sprit up on the end of the deck in case of a gear failure. I had the crossbar welded to fit across the bow and attached the staysail stay to that, and some other things in other locations on the sprit (anchor rollers, samson post, etc).-The boomkin has tangs for the stays, the double backstays for the SSB and an Aries. There is also an anchor winch . The four mainsheet blocks are also there. I have a mast that can be lowered , and the boomkin can handle that and then some.

Experience has tought me that the stern anchor is only good for hauling in that storm as a brake. During a tropical depression on Kauai (not hurricane Iwa), I anchored out coming in before the main blasts, in the anchorage (that was before the state put in that little marina in Nawilwili) and dropped the stern anchor too. The boat drifted sideways broad side to the wind (80mph) towards the breakwater, people absconded with my dinghy oars and I had to get to the boat before Polaris ended in the breakwater. I finally made it, hung on to dear life ( could have missed Polaris) and pulled the aft anchor line to the bow. That aligned  the boat with the wind and waited the storm out.

That's it!

Mike