Spreader tips not captive?

[Beezer]

Hi I have an early ior racer with single inline spreaders. Bought the boat completely I rigged and with a box of parts. The spreader tips are stainless and involve two bits of metal that kind of stick onto the wire sideways then rotate to keep the wire in place. There is no notch in the tip to set the rigging wire in. The mast has been up and we have saiked this way but I want to know if this ability to move the wire in the spreader tip is actually ok? i put a rubber boot on it and taped the heck out of that to try and keep it in place. Unfettered we are talking about maybe a 2.5 inch front to back play for the stay to slide in. Thanks!

[Ian McColgin]

First, I'm hoping you mean up and down play possible.

Assuming that, many riggers cock the spreaders up a little such that the spreader bisects the angle of the stay. In that position, the spreader will usually stay put just with the friction of the stay over the spreader.

That not withstanding, in boisterous weather things can pump and bump and that's not the day you want the spreader to slip down and let the stay go slack. So most riggers find a way to keep the spreader in one place on the stay. Something seriously more attached than hoping the rubber boots keep things aligned.

There are boats where someone thought the spreaders ought to be dead horizontal and for that reason made the base attachment to the mast rigid. These spreaders absolutely must be supported, usually by seizing around the stay and then some mechanical press fit or lashing to the spreader tip.

Further, if the spreaders are prone to be stood on by people going up the mast - it is a great view after all - a light supporting stay might be run at a forty five degree down angle from the mast to the end of the spreader.

So look things over to make it work.

G'luck

[Beezer]

Hi there thanks for the reply. The spreader tip does indeed allow fore and aft movement as well as vertical movement. The shroud is only captive within the tip. I may be overestimating the size of the opening it sits in. Might be more like an inch and a half wide. There is no obvious place to sieze the spreader tip in place and almost as importantly there is absolutely no notch to seat the wire in if it was wired in place, which led me to believe the shroud was supposed to be unconstrained. But really I don't like the situation and feel like it should be more secure. I can only find photos of "twist lock" spreader tips on rigrite but these while functionally similar are not at all the same and appear to allow more play. Are these really oddball then? I was hoping someone had seen something similar. I don't have a photo unfortunately. Thanks very much!

[Ian McColgin]

Sorry I misunderstood the question.

Fore and aft movement is a slightly different issue. Many rigs are designed to allow this. I once made new spreaders for my schooner that, unlike the originals, were rigid fore and aft. Fortunately, Nat Benjamin stopped me before final installation.

Masts do flex. Sometimes, hard core racers will induce some bend at times and take it out at other times. Sometimes it's just the stress of weather and is within designed levels. Either way, rigid spreaders will suffer fatigue at or near the base and sooner or later fail.

If you look at the geometry, you will see that in the fore and aft dimension, the spreader will always assume it's correct fore and aft alignment when under pressure. Draw a line from the chainplate straight to the stay attachment. It crosses the spreader. Any spreader that pushes the stay out (for better angle at the top) and has it's base past that straight line will always be forced to the stay's shortest path.

The real example of stay and spreader geometry is a bit more radical if you're looking at a dolphin striker to give a bobstay a better angle. Too many make a rigid base for the striker and it's subject to anchor line stresses from the side. And it's possible for the striker to be so short, to have a base so close to that direct line between the stay's ends, that it cannot assume the correct position by stress alone. Then, like a whisker pole set from the rail, it may need to be held in place.

Not a problem with spreaders. They will find the right place with tension.

G'luck