Baycruiser modifications

[Julian Swindell]

Awful lot of Bayraider discussion in this section, so I thought it time to put in a bit of Baycruiser stuff.
In my bid to create a boat that is silent at night on a mooring (anyone who has slept in a small cabin at anchor will know just how noisy it is) I have built a permanent boom gallows across the back of the cockpit, which supports the end of the lowered boom and stops it swinging about. I've just realised that it works remarkably well, because I haven't noticed it and forgot all about it all season so far. It is just two S/S stanchions in angled stanchion bases which are screwed to wooden blocks on the coaming, with a laminated board across the top. I cut shaped supports to hold the lowered mast, mizzen mast an boom when towing. It works beautifully, and I plan to use it as the end support of a cockpit tent eventually. I had been worried that it would just get in the way, but it doesn't at all. If you look closely, you can see that I have even managed to mount lateral navigation lights to it, and it holds the lighting board up high when I am towing. If you do tow with mast boom and mizzen tied on top, make sure the boom is really well secured...

[Peteri]

That looks like a really good modification.  Did you make up the board yourself?

[Julian Swindell]

Yes, it is just four thin softwood planks epoxied together, clamped around a couple of blocks to form the curve. I didn't get the curve quite tight enough, so had to add a thin wedge under each end. Even then, the angle was slightly too small, but when the screws in the upper sockets were fully tightened, the whole thing clamped together extremely stiffly.