While strolling the docks a few days ago noticed the following bowsprit arrangement on a 50 foot Beneteau.  The idea of a bowsprit, even a modest one has been one of my themes here for a while. There is plenty of discussion on why here: 

Anyway, this particular installation struck me as fitting all the right parts of any boat upgrade. Simple, neat, unobtrusive, effective, and can be rigged and removed in a few moments I’d say.

The sprit stores along the side rail with the aft (inboard) end fixed to a nifty fitting mounted onto a stanchion:

The black line is the tack adjustment line cunningly led thru the sprit and in this case leading up to the cabin top…..:

To a rope organizer and aft to a clutch and winch under the dodger.

The sprit itself is almost invisible-I was only attracted to the boat by wondering what the black line was leading off to….

When in use, the aft end of the sprit attaches to a pad eye mounted in the correct place on the fore deck:

Seen here in a larger view:

Since the windless is right near by, I imagine there is a fair amount of grunty structure under the pad eye….

The sprit extends forward thru a padded ring, mounted to the bow roller:

It folds down when not in use-It hinges about the bolt that attaches it to the bow roller.

There is a hard finish plastic inside the stainless steel ring.

Seen from the side, there is no need to remove the anchor to deploy the sprit. This makes it likely that the sail that is set off it will be used rather than taking up space in the locker. If something is easy to do we will do it. If it is a drama, we ignore it, right?

Thus when cruising the coast of Maine fer instance, this sprit might easily be rigged for days at a time without interfering with anchoring drills. And if you do need to remove it, it is simple, easy, fast AND there is a place to stow it. “A place for everything and everything in its place”, my dad would say.

I DO like stuff that is simple, well thought out, works and I’ll bet in this case is not a gazillion bucks