Dingy spars - Sprit Rig - detail

Photo the 8 ft. pram dingy Pogo's spars
top is the boom
middle is the mast
bottom is the sprit

The mast is made of a 2x4 ripped lengthwise to a full 2 inch width. Then the small piece sliced off is glued to the flat side. The resulting board is run through the table saw again to make it octognal, then hand planed to roughly round. The eventual spar is a 2 inch diameter dowel. It is 8 feet long, making it easy to store and transport.

You may try using a wooden closet pole for a mast, but I think that it is too lightweight and might break.

The boom connects to the mast with jaws made of a piece of 1/2 inch plywood cut as shown and screwed and glued to the main part of the boom. I added a piece of leather tacked on to control chafe on the mast. In actual practice this is not really necessary. The boom is just under 7 feet long.

The sprit is a piece of wood cut from a 1 inch by 1.25 inch board, with a hole on one end to accept the snotter (the line that attaches it to the mast) and a spike set in the other end to attach it to a loop at the upper corner of the sail. The spike is a short piece of .25 inch brass rod (brazing rod). Almost any durable substance of that approximate size would work for the spike. As you can see (above) the sprit is about 8 feet long.

A note on the snotter - This is a bit of lightweight line (rope) that is attached to the mast with a clove hitch or some knot that will grip the mast and not slip. The other end is attached to the lower end of the sprit to support it.

Detail of boom end, sprit end and mast end.

 


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