New bow pulpit

[Russell]

Well, due to an unfortunate series of events, looks like I am getting a new bow pulpit fabricated. My boat is on the hard now getting bottom paint, this boatyard is insanely small, you can only fit a couple boats here. So the yard owner decides to haul a 54 Little Harbor today, and while turning it around in the very tight space, one of the chocks on the Little Harbor snagged my bow pulpit, bent it all out of shape, busted several welds and basicly tore it off the boat. I have always been pleased with this boatyard and I do think this was a very unusual occurance, needless to say I am not pleased though. I am very fortunate that the boat was not pulled off the jackstands at least.

The upside is, I get a brand new bow pulpit for free. So, is there anything you would change with your existing bowpulpit? I am thinking of doing a European style "split rail" setup, where the top rail does not come all the way around the bow and leaves about a 1' opening, the lower rail does come all the way around but at the foremost tip it has a step on it. Basicly for getting on and off the boat in med mooring situations.

Any other ideas of improvements while I am getting a custom made bow pulpit for free?

[David L]

Russell:

If I were re-doing Raven's bow pulpit, I'd given serious thought to some sort of seat. When the self-steering is set and the weather is good, I just love sitting up there with my back to the forestay. Yes, I know it is not the safest place to be, but the thrill is worth the risk.

Can't easily imagine how your split arrangement with a 12" gap will look, aesthetically that is. Is it too modern-looking for a traditional Cape Dory? I can certainly understand the practicality of it, having discovered plenty of short finger piers that don't reach from bow to mast, never mind to the gate. Haven't run into Mediterranean mooring situations, yet.

Please follow up when/if you do this.

Best regards,
David

[Como No Cruising]

If I had to remake ours, I think that I would go for the European style cut out in the front. Done properly it should look O.K. and what a big plus for Med style mooring. We, aboard Como No can attest to the fact that climbing over the pulpit onto the dock is quite a stretch. We have a split stern "Pushpit?" and it makes for easier boarding also, especially when we remove the air vane and water vane from the Monitor Wind Vane when docked stern to. Of necessity we rarely dock stern to as our fine vessel seems to be a tad difficult to control precisely in reverse.
Going to the Med? The cutout in the bow would be a big plus.

[Russell]

The new pulpit was finished a couple weeks ago. I did have it made euro style with a split rail and a step (seat) for med mooring. It turn out great, I have minor complaints about angles here and there that I wish were 5degrees different, but the pulpit was free, and made of 316 SS, so a nice upgrade that would have cost me a few thousand normally and better material then the original.

While I was pissed off initially at the yards mishap, since it delayed my trip south. It turned out to be a blessing, since not long after I developed intense tooth pain (more pain then I experienced in my entire life, I was in tears simply trying to sleep for days) and am now having that taken care of. If the pulpit had not been destroyed and needed to be rebuilt, I would have been southbound far sooner, as planned. Worst case I would have had my dental issue kick in durring the middle of an 11 day passage to St Martin and I cannot even fathom how I would have dealt with it. Best case it would have kicked in after arriving and I would be dealing with the issue with less then ideal practitioners with less then ideal technology at their disposal.

[Como No Cruising]

Russell: You will probably find occasion to use that cut out in the pulpit, especially if you go Med or even several places in the Caribbean. Isla Mujeres, Marina Paraiso is one place for sure.
Sorry to hear about the tooth. And, you are so right; being at sea with a toothache of large proportions is not a fun thing. Although, I would be very surprised if there were not good dentists in St. Martin. There are good ones on St. Thomas for sure. We even found a couple of decent ones in Grenada. Plus the ones we used i Grenada charged about half of what our stateside dentist charges.
We wish you fair winds going South. We still believe that the Eastern Caribbean has some of the best sailing and cruising in the world. Wish we were going south also.

[Bob Ohler]

Russell, how about some photos of the new pulpit? I am sure some of the readers here would like to see it!

rbo