MacGregorSailors.com

FYI, I replaced my 26X's spreaders last week. I'd bent one when I lost my grip on the mast while de-rigging the boat after retrieval.

The stock spreaders are 1" x .065" aluminum, 44" in length. A local machine shop had this stuff in stock, in 6' lengths. I bought two 6 footers for a total of $25, cut them to length and drilled the holes for the mast and stay attachments myself. 2 minutes with some scotch-brite and they look just like OEM.

Time to fabricate was less than 30 minutes, and total cost was less than half of what they sell for at sites that carry replacements.

And I still have an unbent original spreader as a spare . . .

Jeff thanks for the info cause I gotta replace my spreaders also!

DON ABOARD C-OPAL 2001 MAC 26X
Home Port
Orleans Marina
New Orleans, La.

The Ace Hardware Stores around here have the right size tubing. Take a Spreader Tip along to make sure it will fit inside as there is also some tubing available where the I.D. is not quite large enough.

Jeff Drumm wrote:FYI, I replaced my 26X's spreaders last week. I'd bent one when I lost my grip on the mast while de-rigging the boat after retrieval.

The stock spreaders are 1" x .065" aluminum, 44" in length. A local machine shop had this stuff in stock, in 6' lengths. I bought two 6 footers for a total of $25, cut them to length and drilled the holes for the mast and stay attachments myself. 2 minutes with some scotch-brite and they look just like OEM.

Time to fabricate was less than 30 minutes, and total cost was less than half of what they sell for at sites that carry replacements.

And I still have an unbent original spreader as a spare . . .

Did the same thing except I found a tubing size that just fit inside the spreader tube. I added a length of about 1 foot to strengthen each spreader where it is bolted to the mast since that is where mine was bent.
I also filled the tube with foam tubing. The foam is readily available at building centers for use as backer when caulking wide gaps.