spreader bar

[jake409]

My spreader bars are slightly curved near the mast. Is that the way they supposed to be? I think maybe they curved over time when the mast is down for transport and laying on top of life line was kinda tight but not that tight as to bend em i dont think. Anyway i now relased one side of life line. So is it supossed to have a slight curve on them?
Jake

[mdeane]

The spreaders on my are straight. We detach the spreaders from the mast for trailering and replaced the bolts with pins to make the task easier. The spreaders are held against the mast with a bungee so the need to lower the lifelines or do the Mac dance are eliminated.

Marc

[Tomfoolery]

No, no bend. A bend or curve is inviting buckling under high load conditions, or rather, it lowers the load threshold for buckling failure.

Some folks, me included, use fastpins or pto-type pins to remove the spreaders when the mast is down. No chance of bending them, and the shrouds store a bit neater. I remove the end caps, too, so only the wires are tight to the mast. The spreaders go below for storage.

Edit: Marc beat me to it by 1 minute.

Tom

[Freedom77]

What Tkanzler said. NO NO on the bend. You also need to check to see if the bolt holds are elongated. Was racing in Cal SCYA midwinters with a friend and was dismasted. Spreader sheared off at bolt hole. He replaced them and sleeved with tubing. I have often thought about replacing spreaders on Freedom with Stainless Steel tubing. Just a Thot. Fair winds and full Sails.

[Wind Chime]

To strengthen and support the structure of the spreader bars. I have done what many others have done and put wood dowel inside the spreader tube.
I just bought standard wood dowel from Home Depot. It is a tight fit and I had to use a rubber hammer to get it in, but works great and really strengthens the spreader bars when the mast is down.
Darry

[jake409]

OK, well now i have to replace em. I just hope they are not to much $. For now on i will remove em, one more thing added to set up Thanks everyone
Jake

[Tomfoolery]

OK, well now i have to replace em. I just hope they are not to much $.

Blue Water Yachts lists them for $28.80 each with metal tip. Not too bad.

[mastreb]

What Tkanzler said. NO NO on the bend. You also need to check to see if the bolt holds are elongated. Was racing in Cal SCYA midwinters with a friend and was dismasted. Spreader sheared off at bolt hole. He replaced them and sleeved with tubing. I have often thought about replacing spreaders on Freedom with Stainless Steel tubing. Just a Thot. Fair winds and full Sails.

I wouldn't replace the spreaders with a stronger material, unless you want the mast to bend when you drop it instead. I dropped my mast and one of the spreaders took 90% of the shock load. Bent it. Cost $22 to replace.

It seems that Macs are designed to break in very specific and frankly inexpensive ways.

[Boblee]

Must be straight but bent one of mine so got some ally tube and made two and still have one spare, did put some pvc electrical conduit inside the fixing end to strengthen there.
Ours sit above the lifelines but bear down very lightly, having them above makes it much easier when raising the mast.

[Hardcrab]

Many who keep their M in a salt water environment still opt to replace alum spreaders with stainless steel.

Standard objections understood and respectfully dismissed.

48"x 1" ss tubing (.060 wall thickness?) about $25 each. Cut to 44". ( new M's are shorter to help with mast dance, not sure of new dim) Drill two different sized holes in each end.

Erase forever the possibility of dis-simular metal corrosion at the ss mast fitting "cutting" the stock tube just like a tubing cutter would.
It's happened.

Even if I were to sail only fresh water and lower the mast after each outing I would go for SS.

IMHO and YMMV.

[Calin]

Replaced a bent one with 1"aluminum tubing from Home Depot.

[csm]

Agree with Hardcrab. Stainless tubes have worked great for me; dissimilar metal corrosion is also an issue where the spreader mounts contact the mast. I treated that interface heavily with alodine and isolated with thin teflon sheet. So far so good

[Divecoz]

I and others have straightened ours if only slightly bent, with driving a wooden dowel rod into them and leaving it there.. So Far So Good....

[David Mellon]

I also remove the spreaders, I make it fast and simple with:



Speeds up rigging a lot. I also replaced my spreaders with stainless ones. I never leave the dissimilar metals together except when I'm sailing to avoid any problems.

[mastreb]

I also remove the spreaders, I make it fast and simple with:



Speeds up rigging a lot. I also replaced my spreaders with stainless ones. I never leave the dissimilar metals together except when I'm sailing to avoid any problems.

If you use zinc anodized quickpins as "zincs", you will also solve the dissimilar metal (cathodic) corrosion problem. The quickpins will take all the cathodic corrosion load, and they corrode out rapidly (in a single season). Discard and replace. This takes the cathodic electrical load and corrodes the quickpins rather than the stainless or aluminum.

I'm on my second season, second set of anodized quickpins, and my spreaders are just as clean as they were when new.