The great benefits of the bowsprit

Why you should get a removable bowsprit for your boat right now

The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar extending forward from the vessel’s prow. It provides an anchor point for the forestays, allowing the fore-mast to be stepped farther forward on the hull. The bowsprit is typically held down by a bobstay that counteracts the forces from the forestays.

The history of the bowsprit

The word bowsprit is thought to originate from the Middle Low German word bōchsprēt – bōch meaning “bow” and sprēt meaning “pole”. Back in those times, it was used to tack the bow sails (jib, back jib) on sailing ships until the beginning of the 1900s. After the Second World War until the beginning of the 80s, the bowsprit started to almost disappear: it seemed to penalize during sailing races due to the long stern and bow thrusts of the hulls. It was the time of tangons and spinnakers.

From the mid-80s, the bowsprit as we know it today was finally born. With the appearance of asymmetrical gennakers, which results to be more comfortable for cruising, especially in the free reaching speed, the bowsprit is redesigned. It is now retractable and removable. It’s available both in aluminum as well as carbon and it seemed to be perfectly matched with this kind of sails.

Today sailing boats tend to have a vertical dead ahead, therefore it is necessary to build a bowsprit that can support anchor windlasses, whips, and even convenient ladders for descending to the ground from the bow.

The Sail Service removable bowsprit

We have decided to improve our bowsprit, which has been open for years, at the service of many shipowners who have chosen and appreciated it both on cruises and in regattas. A new, simpler, and more robust coupling system has been our goal! We have achieved it with this new version by improving the fundamental characteristics that for years have been estimated: simplicity, practicality, and robustness, without forgetting the aesthetics. As with the previous version, the tube profiles remain unchanged with the standard sizes in 70mm and 80mm diameters in aluminum, carbon, and glass-carbon, the bowsprit head, and the hooking system have been completely renewed.

The new bowsprit head has been designed to handle up to 3 fixing points, leaving the possibility to easily remove itself from the bow ring. In addition to the inner wall, the head is designed to be supplied with a strong attachment for upwind and a high load fixed strop, both can allow the attachment of an alternative wall to the inner one or to mount sails on roll-up systems.

For the fixing of the rear part of the bowsprit we have designed a solid system capable of withstanding higher loads and at the same time simple and fast to assemble, leaving the deck clean when not in use. The rear head of the bowsprit is made by numerical control so as to match perfectly with the special bridge fixed on the deck.