Spreader Tips

This winter I learned a bit about the spreaders on my mast.  

Here is the tip of one of the spreaders.  W21 only has one set of spreaders (one on each side of the mast).  It looks like the shroud wire has been wearing the slot deeper.  It is almost worn all the way back to the hole used for lashing the cable in place wire stainless steel wire.  

I asked Buzz Ballenger about this spreader tip design.  I thought that it must be missing something.  First off he said it wasn’t a Ballenger mast or spreader.  He said that back in the days when this boat was new, this wasn’t an uncommon design for smaller boat spreader tips.

I designed a cap for the spreader tips to help support the shroud wires better.  Help avoid them wearing the slot any deeper.

This cap snaps onto the ends of my spreaders.  They were printed using ABS plastic filament.  The shrouds and these caps will be lashed on with stainless steel wire when I launch the boat in the next few weeks.  

Will ABS plastic be enough for this?  I think it will be fine.  Currently the spreader tips support the wire with the thin edge of aluminum sheet.  That has worked well for 43 years.  My caps will spread out the load.

We’ll see how it does when I take out the boat at the end of the 2023 season.