[Rhodes22-list] Spreaders

[Peter Nyberg]

Hank,

I'm going to assume that you have an original General Boats mast, and that your mainsail furls up inside your mast (i.e. you have Inner Mast Furling, or IMF).

Your spreaders should attach to brackets which are then attached to the mast.  The spreaders are held in place by cotter pins (one each).  The brackets are attached to the mast by a bolt that passes through the mast.  Inside the mast, there should also be a compression sleeve, which prevents the bolt from compressing and deforming the mast.  

The bracket also provides attachment points for the lower shrouds.

The spreaders can be pretty floppy when the mast is down.  With the mast raised, the upper shrouds keep things in place.

I've attached a picture of a spreader bracket from the Dwyer website.

Peter Nyberg
Coventry, CT
s/v Silverheels (1988/2016)

> On 2023-04-06, at 12:12:50 EDT, hankstein at aol.com wrote:
>
> I am Hank Stein.  I recently purchased a '93 Rhodes 22 (GBX22113A193).
> 
> 
> The spreaders are connected with a cotter pin to a through the mast pin.  
> --  that is, both spreaders are attached to a pin that goes through the 
> mast. This seems an odd way to mount spreaders.  Please, I would 
> appreciate knowing if this is a factory method for attaching the 
> spreaders.  The through the mast pin has an inordinate amount of "sloop" 
> (clearance between the mast through hole and the pin). 
> Any advice will be appreciated since I've never seen spreaders mounted in this 
> way and am concerned. 
> Thanks for any help.
> Hank Stein    Huron, Ohio
> 

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