Forestay Bridle Attachments

So..... I came up with this idea on how to attach the forestay bridles without bolting thru the hull skins and also insure a strong watertight fitting. The forward end of this bolt will be held by a small mini bulkhead with G10 discs on either side for the bolt pass thru and glassed with biaxial.

The main part is a heavy duty Danish made 3/4" stainless thimble. Over this is some nylon reinforced PVC hose with a piece of 10mm poly rope to hold the shape. This will allow a number or bridle options: a 10mm Spectra bridle, a wire bridle with spectra strops only a short distance from the hull, lashing looped thru the tubing, etc. It's all mocked up to a screw on the floor the approximate center of the future seagull striker to get the angle set right for when I fit the hull side and pour the cavity with resin.


The tubing will be cut down and the throat area glassed around on the hull outside. It will hopefully look super cool and was made from materials I had on hand. The tubing and fiberglass wrapping will ensure a watertight tunnel and the area the thimble sits in in the bows will be filled with a epoxy and wood shaving mixture.


I wrapped it all up with glass tape under tension to compress the hose into the approximate shape it will take when the bridle is attached. I wrapped it in electrical tape to smush it all down while the epoxy cured.


This is the inner bow hull side piece. I needed to test out my Ebay Pink peel-ply material. Worked great and was a super deal. Notice how well my 13 oz biaxial wets out under the peel-ply. My hope is this is how the hull sides will look when glassed!