The Steamboating Forum

Rainbow had some trouble with the mooring bridle rubbing the (already poor condition) finish off the top of the bulwarks when she was last in the water some years ago now:

We were in Port Townsend in August and I ordered some hawse holes from Port Townsend Foundry. This will let me pass the bridle through the planking (and backing block which nestles between the frames ) in a nice bronze casting. The slot is about 1" high internally....
They're on-line here: https://www.porttownsendfoundry.com/

The forum software is quite broken... sigh.

Nice to have real hardware of good quality. A springtime gift to your steamer.

Hi Bart,

the parts look good. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any prices on the foundry's website. Where can I check?

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Dietrich

dampfspieler wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 8:42 am Hi Bart,

the parts look good. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any prices on the foundry's website. Where can I check?

---------
Dietrich

You can give them a call; I've found them not to be very responsive in email although that may be a function of time of year. It's a small operation, with an amazing set of patterns and a deep knowledge of traditional casting techniques. Prices are as one might expect of a completely manual operation - substantial, not unlike those from toplicht.de for bronze hardware. "Kathy" is the person I dealt with both in person and on the phone. I wanted a particularly deep (50 mm between flanges) hawse hole; no problems; parts were machined to order.

My brother has also had a custom fore stay fitting cast from nickle aluminum bronze on his 13 m ketch; it's been in the salt water now for several years, with no corrosion.

They're the local go-to place for custom hardware for traditional vessels...

- Bart