INVESTIGATOR 563

Many years back, I managed to bend one of my spreader arms after it became tangled in a stay during mast erection. The arm is a piece of aluminium tube so it was not hard to source a replacement. The free end is not secured to the shroud except by the tension in the wire itself. This didn’t seem like a good design even though I have had no problems since.

I’ve been replacing a few bits and pieces on the mast and noticed that modern spreaders are fitted with a cap to secure the end to the shroud. Allyacht Spars Australia stocks a suitable spreader kit but unfortunately the cost is around $500 and needs to be fitted by the company. It would be hard to justify this expense. The person I talked to at Allyachts suggested simply using seizing wire to achieve the same result; so that’s what I did. You can buy the stuff by the meter from most chandler stores. To finish off, I cut out a couple of pieces of leather to cover the end of the spreader.

My "diamond spreaders" (their proper designation) are solid aluminium rod with a slot in the end for the stay and those which I fitted to a mast in the mid 60's were solid rod. If yours were tube before you replaced them then I suspect they were not original and could have been why they got damaged raising your mast.? Doubt that I could bend mine even in a vise.

It seems strange that someone would replace solid spreaders with tubing. Maybe the tubing was an earlier design and Investigator went to solid because of problems similar to mine. Does anyone else have the tubing for spreaders?

It is debatable whether the diamond stays are needed at all, with an untapered mast. (There are a few tapered, but I think they were specials.) CF the Compass Careel, which is same size boat, same mast, no diamond stays..

Weight up high is critical, and a hollow tube spreader makes sense. With a diamond stay, the compression force makes enough friction so that it is not necessary to lock the stay to the wire. Smooth cover over the spreader end is a very good idea to preserve your sails. Used to be able to buy plastic ones which were relatively inexpensive.

If you damage the spreader it is easy enough to fix it with the mast down. Advantage of a T/S!

The mast socket and the spreader came as one unit(a pair). As I said in the 60's they were solid and would suggest that someone used tube because it is cheaper(aluminium is sold by weight) especially when you are going to throw most of the length away and probably easier to buy than rod. The Careel 18 has lower stays instead of diamonds. You need something to keep the lower section of the mast controllable and diamonds can go out of plane and the mast can bend - have had it happen on another boat.

I'm almost certain mine are tube also with plastic caps . Remember looking at them when I rerigged last , although I did not do the diamond stays as they appeared quite sound .

Neat leather work Ray.