BOBSTAY.
Various ingenious plans have been invented for bobstays, as no part of a yacht's gear so frequently gives out; but the most usual plan of making up a bobstay is as follows : a copper bar shackled to the stem, and about as long as the bowsprit is high out of the water ; then a wire pendant and tackle. The tackle has a single block next the pendant, and a double one at the bowsprit end, the fall leading inboard at the stem. The cordage selected for the tackle is usually bolt rope. A common practice in racing vessels is to have a " baby bobstay," or pre venter which is not set up quite so taut as the other ; this preventer has no doubt saved some bowsprits, but, on the other hand, it has undoubtedly been the cause of many being carried away. Constantly setting up the jib, or the strain of the jib alone, or the strain of the bowsprit when set down to a crook, will soon cause the fall to stretch or " come up," and then an equal strain comes on both. But very frequently the preventer is set up a little tauter than the other ; in such cases, if there be any weight in the wind, the preventer is almost certain to part, and the other if the jerk be very great, may go with it. If the
main bobstay should go first, it would be hardly reasonable to expect the other and weaker one to stand ; it may, it is true, just save the bowsprit, but the sailing master will have so little confidence in the pre venter that he will order the jib sheets to be eased up, and will gill his vessel along, whilst the other bobstay is being patched up, if such a thing as patching be practicable. Another danger attending the practice of having two bobstays is that the main one is never quite so stout and strong as it otherwise would be ; and, as it is almost certain that an unequal strain will come upon them, one only has practically always to do the work. Therefore by far the wiser plan is to have one stout and strong bobstay, equal in fact to the united strength of the two.