NOHUHU : The materials for my wing jib sail were only about a hundred bucks, and most of it I already had laying around, a lot of the sailcloth material was left over scraps from when I made my spinnaker sail a few yrs ago and was just laying around. My jib mast is an old painter extension pole I had laying around (I would guess a new one would be around $20 bucks or so). It took me about 2-3 weekends of actual work to lay out, then cut and sew everything together. Of course this is not including the two fricken years it took to dream it up, the construction part of it was actually really simple and easy (anyone can build one easily). My 135 sq ft spinnaker cost a little more (a lot more material), I think I spent around $150 bucks in materials, and it took several weekends to sew it all together (note those spinnakers are huge and fill up our entire bedroom when laid out, I think it took around 10-12 spools of expensive upholstery thread to sew it all together.
My bowsprit I did in a weekend, I had an old fiberglass ax handle laying around in the garage for the last 20 yrs ( I designed and developed them originally), I cut the yellow plastic off it and re-purposed the 3 ft fiberglass pultrusion ( I imagine a new fiberglass replacement handle at home depot would be around $10-$12 bucks). I used 2 pieces of 3/4 sq aluminum 1/8 wall tubing each 4 ft long, I think they were around $25 bucks for both (don't remember for sure, I got them at lowes). I bought 1 piece of 1/8 x 2 x 36" long aluminum (Lowes, around $12 buck I think), about $3-$4 dollars in stainless screw (mostly 8/32), and 1 piece of 1/8" x 1/2" x 36" aluminum bar ( about $5 bucks) that made my clamps around the aka bar out of, I just bent them by hand around the aka bar (being a tool maker I have very strong fingers LOL), then screwed them to the 3/4" sq aluminum bars with 8/32 flat heads. I pick my boat up by the end of that bowsprit every weekend, and the bow sprit is still going strong after 3 1/2 yrs of really heavy use (and abuse).
My mast topper, I think the 12 inch long piece of 1 1/4 brass tube was around $5 bucks at Home Depot ( I bought all this stuff 4 yrs ago and it's hard to remember exact numbers), I'm still using the same original brass drain tube.
My first mast topper itself was a 3ft steel rod fit and glued into a galvanized 1 inch T connector with a 4 inch union sticking out the bottom with a bolt sticking out the bottom. (probably under $10 buck for everything. I used that topper for several yrs but it was over 4 lbs, so I made a new one last year made from another one of those 3 ft fiberglass pultrusions, I used a 1" PVC T and a small section of 1" PVC tubing to make the new mast topper. I ran the fiberglass pultrusion thru the long leg of the T connector, I then took two small pieces of 1/8" x 1/2" aluminum stock (left over from the bow sprit) and jammed them into the T from the bottom (along both sides the pultrusion down at the bottom). I then placed a steel rod in the center of the bottom (sticking out about 2 inches out the bottom (for the point bearing). I then taped up the ends of the T and filled the whole works with west systems epoxy. To test out the mast topper I strung a rope with each end attached to the ends of the mast topper, then raised the mast, I can sit in the sling (like a swing) with all my weight and the mast topper doesn't break, I estimate it would take around 600 lbs of force to bend the mast topper cross bar, and around 300 lbs to break the T if only pulling down on the front only (without a rear stay), the whole mast topper is around 2 lbs. The original mast topper that I made in spring 2010 still works fine and is sitting in the garage as a backup. The new mast topper would have cost around $15 bucks to make (most of that being the cost of the pultrusion), but I had everything laying around the garage (I think I still have a couple of those old ax handles left from 20 yrs ago laying around somewhere), Actually I had everything just laying around so the mast topper didn't cost anything to make.
My motor mount is 3 pieces of 1 1/2 PVC tubing, two 3/8" dia steel rods, and a six inch piece of pressure treated 2x4, I built the whole thing in one afternoon back in April 2010 (the third day I had my TI), that stupid motor mount is still going strong with way over 3000 sailing miles on it, it didn't cost me more than $15 dollars to make it, and about 3-4 hrs labor. I think I have around $750 bucks total in mods on my TI (not including the cost of my $1000 dollar Honda emergency backup motor obviously) that I have spent over the last 4 yrs. Of course this doesn't include the purchase cost of 3 TI's either This does not include the Hydrofoils that I built 3 yrs ago, that's kind of a sore subject with me, as I have way too much time, effort, and money (about $300 bucks in materials (mostly aluminum)) invested in those foils trying to develop something that is practical. That's what I got. ( you asked) Bob
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