Relief cut or "swallowtail" a factory splice section?

[HappySailor]

With an internal sleeve mast splice, conventional thought here has been to reduce stress concentration at the ends by shaping the splice ends with a taper, swallowtail, or relief cuts...

I'm about to utilize a "factory" Sparcraft splice for an S1060 (144x264mm-5.5x10.5in)



This is a fairly stout piece, appx 1/4" wall with 1/4" plates welded fore and aft, 64" long... best guess on weight is 40 lb...

One would think, Sparcraft would seem to have "engineered this through"... but???
I'm very tempted to run some 1/8" x 6" relief cuts on all four sides at both ends...

Thoughts? Waste of time? Doing nothing is better? Do more, like take some V sections out?

Thanks for Lookin'!

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
V-cuts, definitely. I fear that someone at Sparcraft has decided that abrupt stress risers (and needless extra weight) are needless distractions, compared with the expedience of chopping the section square and stuffing it into the mast.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[HappySailor]

Originally Posted by Brion Toss

Hello,
V-cuts, definitely. I fear that someone at Sparcraft has decided that abrupt stress risers (and needless extra weight) are needless distractions, compared with the expedience of chopping the section square and stuffing it into the mast.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

Hi Brion,

Thank you yet again for taking the time to look and answer one of my posts...

I'm in 100% agreement that this was a simple build it and stuff it deal as well... I will be cutting tapered relief by making a "point" on all 4 sides, both ends...

Thank You!

HS