Mast Spreader Problems

Quinn McCarthy · Post by **Quinn McCarthy** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 10:16 am

Ever since we put the boat in this spring we have been having problems with the spreaders moving up and down. One moves up and one moves down. When we put the mast up we leveled them but every time we sail they move. The stop screws on the spreader ends are toast and have never held anything since we bought the boat however it has never been a problem. What can we do to keep the spreader from moving? Can we use rigging tape for now? Also there is just a little bow in the spreaders that I never noticed before. I think it is from moving up and down but not sure. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Quinn

Stef · Post by **Stef** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 2:44 pm

Quinn, I use rigging tape. Wrap it around about 10 times, back and forth.

Post by **Tom Elsen** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 8:29 pm

Quinn
When you dropped the stick to store the boat this winter, did you tape the inboard (closest to the mast) end of the spreaders? If not, you could have gotten some water in the end, which then froze inside, and bowed the ends.

Quinn McCarthy · Post by **Quinn McCarthy** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 8:30 am

Thanks for the suggestions Tom and Stef. I had toyed around with using rigging tape. I will give it a try.

Post by **Tom Elsen** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 8:05 am

Hey Quinn
I don't think that the tape will work to fix the problem you described. You might try some epoxy putty, formed in a ball around the stay. Alternatively you could see if those set screws can be re-tapped and replaced with a slightly larger diameter choice.
My previous comments focused more on how water gets into the spreaders and, if it freezes there, can bow the ends.

dave · Post by **dave** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:03 pm

You didn't really mean "level" did you? The spreaders [on any mast] are supposed to bisect the angle of the cable that runs through it for maximum resistance to compression. Just checking.

Dave

Quinn McCarthy · Post by **Quinn McCarthy** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 12:25 pm

Dave

What do you mean by that? I thought I had seen somewhere that the spreaders on the S2 should be about 5 degrees high or above level. That's about where they are.

Quinn

dave · Post by **dave** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:09 pm

That's probobly close. By "bisect", let's say for a single spreader mast, if we use the angle of the upper from the deck to the spreader tip as "zero" and then the hypothetical angle of the shroud from the spreader tip to the to the mast attatchment is 20 degrees from that, bisecting that would give you a spreader angle of 10 degrees.

Dave