Bowsprit Footing

[pelorus32]

Being just in the process of refurbishing our spars, including the bowsprit, I couldn't bring myself to drill more holes in things. Nor could I face damage to the 12 coats of varnish!!

We have the same problem on a smaller scale - we have a 32 foot Lyle Hess. The first thing that came to mind was to reverse the process: Instead of taking the crew to the bowsprit end, why not bring the tack block to the crew? Is there some way you could rig a traveller to bring the tack block in to the deck? I'm not thinking of a track and hardware, but more of a software solution? A block at the end of the bowsprit which has an endless line rove through it. The endless line carries the spinnaker tack block. You reeve the tack strop through the tack block then you use the endless line to take the tack block to the end of the bowsprit. When it comes to blowing the tack for a take down you bring the tack block home to you, make it fast and blow the tack.

Just a thought.

BTW we want pictures of Prudence please. There's a sloop rigged 57' Alden in build in the shed where we refurbished our mast. She is the same design as Cock Robin but without the yawl rig.