Critical Spreader Lengths

[Douglas]

Ahoy All, Why was I not prepared for Tsunami damage assessment of my rigging ? I thought I studied everything well before departure ! , but missed this topic.

"Calliste's" starboard upper and lower spreader tips were hit from aft and forced forward, this damaged the welded on spreader bases, and compression dented the mast.

It looks like I could reuse the spreaders on the new mast, if I can cut 1" off the spreader base ends.
Does anyone know how critical exact spreader length is ? Would a 1 inch shorter spreader be acceptable, especially if I balanced them by cutting all four, one inch shorter ?

Douglas, BCC Calliste

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
It is entirely possible that the shorter spreaders will be fine; indeed, they may be an improvement, depending on what the original lengths were. You might want to look at the pertinent section of the 'Apprentice' for details. It would be good to get a 12? angle of the upper shrouds to the mast, and at least that on the intermediates, assuming this can happen without the spreader length exceeding the beam to the chainplates.
Really, what you have here is a design opportunity, to get spreaders that are the right length.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss