Spreaders on JJ Taylor CO32

[Tazling]

Hi... I post humbly as a non-rigger puzzled about something I've noticed on my dear old beat-up Contessa 32 (Canadian, not UK).

I noticed last season that the leeward spreader was swinging fore and aft rather freely, which worried me. This year I sent someone up the mast to look; then, in the yard, I rented a manlift and went up myself. This is what I found:

The spreaders are hollow, look like anodised aluminium, and slip over hefty tangs or tabs that are welded to the (aluminium) mast (I think the mast, like the boom, is by a mfr called LINKED which probably no longer exists). A single hole is drilled through both spreader and tab, and a stainless clevis pin about 1/4" diam passes through both.

The clevis pins are in good shape. The spreaders are in good shape. But the hole in the tang or tab on the mast seems to be egged out. Each spreader can be rotated aft several degrees (one somewhat more than the other). Now this weldment is a hefty chunk of metal, maybe 3/8" or more thick at its beefiest point (where the clevis pin passes through it), kind of vaguely foil-shaped to match the spreader x-section, so it seems a bit strange (see below).

The metal of the tab seems sound -- I didn't dredge up any white crumbly bits when I investigated. And there is a hard stop at the end of travel, so the metal hasn't disappeared past the edge of the weldment :-) What puzzles me is how on earth the stainless clevis pins could egg out a hole in 1/4" aluminium rather than chewing through the relatively flimsy 1/8" metal of the hollow spreaders! The spreaders don't look new.

I'm puzzled. Are these spreaders *meant* to rotate 20 degrees or so, is that a feature? I have read confusing references online to "fixed" vs "pivoting" spreaders. It may be that the Contessa 32 rig was designed with pivoting spreaders. So... should I be worried? And if so, how can all the wear be happening in the thicker metal?

Scratching head...

de
S/V Tazling Co32 JJT '81
Cortes Island BC