Hiya.  I'm currently building my first radio sailing racing yacht, an Alternative.  I'm happy with progress and I've started building rigs.  I started with the C Rig and that's finished.  But the A and B rigs both have spreaders and I'm wondering how to proceed.  I could drill holes in my mast and fit brass spreaders, connected by stiff wire, or I could fit the clip-on type.  My instinct is to not drill holes in masts if you don't have to, but the clip-ons are free to rotate, which could be a pain.

Any advice gratefully received!

If you read Brad Gibson's information on the BG website you would read that Brad suggests the wire and tube option  

 

I would also recommend using the tubing and wire solution. One spreader has the wire glued in place and the other slips onto the wire - makes it easy to disassemble the rig for travel.

However the main advantage of the fixed spreader is that is helps stop the mast from rotating if you don't have a pinned mast step. The gooseneck/vang puts a rotating force on the mast on a run, and the spreaders help stop the mast rotating to keep everything in place.

An advantage of the clip on is you can adjust the height - lower allows more flex in the rig - higher stiffens the rig. But you can get the same flexibility by drilling low and high positions for the spreader.

John

Hi Vernon

My Britpop uses the wire and brass tube spreaders, however my Psycho uses clip on spreaders. The Psycho was actually Barry Chisam the designer's own boat which I purchased when he upgraded to an Asbo. The rigs which came with the Psycho used the clip on spreaders so stuck with them.

Now the main advantage of the wire and brass tube version is you can easily angle them or keep them straight as required by setup. The clip on spreader is angled and I find it virtually impossible to straighten.

As your boat is an Alternative you know exact height, length and bend angle you probably require for correct setup. This if building new rigs would be my choice.

Even if you went this route and wanted to experiment with height of spreader the clip on spreaders would still fit.

I have only had one mast fail due to corrosion at a drilled mounting hole in the mast and believe that was from a lack of washing the rig when sailed in salt water. This was done by a previous owner of a Lintel I sailed for a time, should of checked the mast before the breakage happened but only sailing on fresh water and regularly washing boat and rig it never appeared on my radar at the time.

Regards Eric

Hi, forgot to add both of my yacht's masts have foot fittings to stop the mast rotation issues. Therefore not reliant on spreaders to perform this function.

Thanks for the advice guys.  Looks like I'll be using fixed spreaders!

You won't regret it Vernon - clip on's were invented by the devil

 

I used the clip-on in my early (only a few years lol) IOM days. I fitted a pin in the front, and a hole in mast, to prevent rotation.

Over the course of some re-rigging and spar swaps, I've been thru the sailsetc 'aero section' too. Latest re-rig I have simple wire, round tubing, with split pins in the ends. My reasoning: I don't now buy the 'reduced drag' of the aero section, its gonna be insignificant to the whole (it's not an ac75 with deck profile designed by AMG Mercedes!); wire allows rake to be adjusted if you want; steel tubing is cheap, if you wanna lengthen/shorten then its quick cheap and easy.

With a known design i doubt you'd realistically need to alter the height. Have it about right and varying the length instead would still allow tweaking for more/less lateral force.

In short - simple gives adjustment, even replacement, at low cost and with low hassle.

(Most of the mast bend is fore-and-aft - i have my structural engineering text book somewhere lol, but two holes in the side probably cause less weakness than the jib attachment).

Edited October 15, 20241 yr by Colin Helliwell
Additional comment

On 15/10/2024 at 15:42, Colin Helliwell said:

I used the clip-on in my early (only a few years lol) IOM days. I fitted a pin in the front, and a hole in mast, to prevent rotation.

Over the course of some re-rigging and spar swaps, I've been thru the sailsetc 'aero section' too. Latest re-rig I have simple wire, round tubing, with split pins in the ends. My reasoning: I don't now buy the 'reduced drag' of the aero section, its gonna be insignificant to the whole (it's not an ac75 with deck profile designed by AMG Mercedes!); wire allows rake to be adjusted if you want; steel tubing is cheap, if you wanna lengthen/shorten then its quick cheap and easy.

With a known design i doubt you'd realistically need to alter the height. Have it about right and varying the length instead would still allow tweaking for more/less lateral force.

In short - simple gives adjustment, even replacement, at low cost and with low hassle.

(Most of the mast bend is fore-and-aft - i have my structural engineering text book somewhere lol, but two holes in the side probably cause less weakness than the jib attachment).

yes totally agree alloy tube and steel pin, 

I use 3d printed spreaders and you can have varying angles and lengths for different conditions

Wow, that's amazing.  Sadly, I've gone the old school route and used brass tube 🫢

Hi Vernon,  I don't know whether you saw my thread "Alternative build" on the IOM page, but would be most interested in details of your build. Maybe you could post some on here.

Also agree with the majority, on the brass tube and pin spreaders.

Richard

11 minutes ago, Richard98 said:

Hi Vernon,  I don't know whether you saw my thread "Alternative build" on the IOM page, but would be most interested in details of your build. Maybe you could post some on here.

Also agree with the majority, on the brass tube and pin spreaders.

Richard

Hi Richard,

Yes, I've seen your Alternative build thread.  I had intended to build a wooden Alternative but I couldn't resist a set of Kris Panis mouldings so I went that route.  I'd be happy to add some details of my build to your thread but wouldn't want to water down the super wooden boat building thats on there!

Cheers, V

where do people get their spreader kit these days - SailsEtc no longer seem to do the round tube kit or aero section (tube, rod and split pin) - can you buy it all somewhere else or do you have to trawl through ebay looking for all the bits (in which case what size/int & ext diameter of tube and rod etc do people use for a IOM (its over 10 years since I built my last rig so a bit out of touch)

cheers

Peter

2 minutes ago, Salty said:

where do people get their spreader kit these days - SailsEtc no longer seem to do the round tube kit or aero section (tube, rod and split pin) - can you buy it all somewhere else or do you have to trawl through ebay looking for all the bits (in which case what size/int & ext diameter of tube and rod etc do people use for a IOM (its over 10 years since I built my last rig so a bit out of touch)

cheers

Peter

PJ Sails does them. https://www.pjsails.co.uk/collections/rig-fittings

Go to your hobby shop and look for 16th in stainless rod, and look for brass tubing that just slips over the rod - say 16th i/d..

I glue the stainless into one half of the spreader, and the other slips on/off when rigging to sail.

I use a piece of stainless rigging wire bent back to make the split pins to secure the shrouds.

John

thanks John - unfortunately Hobby Shops are like 'hens teeth' over here in the UK these days  😀

Ive yet to go thru my tool boxes of bits - theres a good chance I may have what I need - yeh good suggestion re using bent wire instead of a split pin - that will probably go into the end of the tube more/better to make it less likely the leech line gets hooked up too

cheers

peter

 

13 minutes ago, Salty said:

thanks John - unfortunately Hobby Shops are like 'hens teeth' over here in the UK these days  😀

Ive yet to go thru my tool boxes of bits - theres a good chance I may have what I need - yeh good suggestion re using bent wire instead of a split pin - that will probably go into the end of the tube more/better to make it less likely the leech line gets hooked up too

cheers

peter

 

Hi Peter, I went down the brass tube and stainless wire route for my IOM spreaders.  Happily I had some appropriate brass tube in my modeller's stockpile.   If you haven't got any, Squires Tools have loads of stuff, including brass tubes.  You can catch them at modelling and craft shows or buy from their Web site:

http://www.squirestools.com/home.htm

Good luck.

Vernon

I used  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BHSR5R5H?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_9&th=1

 

If you know the sizes you want most people with a 3d printer could print them for you, I have been using 3d printed ones for a few years on A class and 6metre yachts