The past year we have been working with Absolute in Portugal starting with the Alden sail and rig plan of Wolfhound creating construction drawings of all the spars and rig fittings. That work is now complete.  Towards the end of our stay in Dordrecht we were also contemplating starting to build the spars and rig in-house but decided against that. For a small “trial project” we had already ordered wood (Sitka Spruce) from Touchwood and the bronze fittings from Absolute for the solid wood bowsprit. Once we arrived at our new facilities in Enkhuizen we find our selves next door to Ventis Shepstimmerwerk the premier wooden spar builder in the Netherlands.

Although it is too early to start building the entire rig for Wolfhound for fun we asked Ventis to build the bow sprit right away as we already had all he material on hand. Below you can se some of the photos of the very quick build process that followed.

The bowsprit is 10 meters long, 305 mm max diameter, and is made of solid Sitka Spruce. It is designed for a maximum of 105 metric tons compression load including the 3X safety factor. It has intermediate shrouds from both the bow sprit spreaders and the dolphin striker for further strength.

The protective coating is unusual as it is Owatrol Deksolje D1 & D2 and not the typical Polyurethane clear coat. The D1 & D2 will cut down on maintenance in the long run. For the same reason that we decided to oil the teak cap-rail of the boat with D1 instead of varnish with Epiphanies. This is an important consideration for a boat that will have hoops, and the wear and tear that follows, for the gaff sails on the lower masts in the future.