Mid life surgery is not uncommon on Cherubs. Here my 10 year old Italian Bistro is gaining a snout in 2000. Its all hand laid up glass over foam with local carbon reinforcement except as noted.

2641-2000snout.jpg Ready to start - angle grinder waiting!

2641-2000snouu.jpg The idea behind the odd bracket was so that the pole could retract into the side tank rather than into the crew area. The boat was built without a bowsprit, and there was no room for one under the daggerboard case support.

2641-2000snouv.jpg Clouds of glass dust later (always wear dust mask and other protection) all the old arrangement is gone.

2641-2000snouw.jpg At this stage I chopped a hole in the stem to work out the correct position for the pole. Its easier to work these things out with a good reference point.

2641-2000snoux.jpg The new snout, with gunwale arrangements etc still to come. I made up flat panels off the boat and then located and glued them together in position.

2641-2000snouy.jpg Bulkhead which supports the bowsprit.This one is critical and needs to be strong!

2641-2000snouz.jpg There's still the hole from the old bracket to fill, plus the gunwale arrangements to create.

2641-2000snouza.jpg Close up showing unidirectional carbon reinforcement. All the rig loads come into the snout.If this falls off it will be disastrous!

2641-2000snouzb.jpg Spinnaker chute area. The “chute is made from expanded polystyrene, covered in a glass/kevlar laminate, kevlar being less prone to being cut through.I'm not sure I've got a big enough spinnaker chute after getting all the beams in the right places for maximum strength.

2641-2000snouzc.jpg Ready to deck. The two diagonal beams to the end of the chute are carbon over balsa, intended to reduce the tendency of the boat to bend under rig load.

2641-2000snouzd.jpg The “chute” contains a carbon transverse beam to triangulate the loads from the new diagonal beams. You can now see the strip wood gunwale which the ply deck will glue onto. As the rest of the gunwales are wood it seemed more elegant to continue the wood to the bow.

2641-2000snouze.jpg Ply deck glued down and ready to trim. The deck is in two pieces, joined asymmetrically to port. Were I doing a more major conversion I'd take all the wood decks off and replace them with foam, removing all the wood strip etc. I wasn't used to foam sandwich back in 1989 when I finished the boat from a pro built shell.

2641-2000snouzf.jpg And here's the completed project, with brand new jib.

All photos © Jim Champ

  • tech/2641snout.txt
  • Last modified: 2020/12/09 19:21
  • by 127.0.0.1