RS800 spreaders

Right, I'm really scratching my head here.. After a couple of years where life really got in the way of sailing I'm trying to get my RS800 sorted out and back on the water. One of the jobs I needed to do was replacing the lower spreaders (Holt mast). I got the new ones from RS and cut them down to the same length as the old ones (on RS's advice, they were about 30mm too long as supplied) being careful to cut the outboard end so I didn't disturb the inboard end holes. Set them up according to the class rules and was happy.. until I sighted down the mast. The port spreader has significantly less deflection than the stbd (the stbd looks correct, as it's at pretty much the same angle as the upper spreader).

Hopefully now with pictures...

Track wobbles about a bit too doesn't it... It almost looks to me as if the goosneck is even more out of line as if the whole spar has twisted, but I find it hard to imagine that's possible. Must admit when I do spreaders I drill the holes for the second one in place so as to get them entirely symettrical as I'm not a good enough fabricator to do exactly even spreader brackets.
Think in this case you're just going to have to take the best compromise and juggle positions as much as you can to get things as even as practical.

Try putting the mast in the boat with the shrouds detached from the spreaders (set the same on both sides) and measure the distance from spreaders to shrouds. At the very least this should confirm whether the spreader bracket is out of true with the heel fitting.

Edited by dogslife - 30 Jul 12 at 9:44am

Originally posted by Oatsandbeans I don't trust them to put spreader brackets on consistantly.

I don't suppose any of the other manufacturers are any different. To my mind the risk for the OP is to get so psyched out by the state of his rig that boatspeed goes down the tubes, which is why it would be useful to look at other folks rigs and see how inconsistent they are too, so that you don't feel too badly about it...

Maybe its just incompetence on my part, but I find spreaders a royal pain in the neck to set up properly.
A few weeks back I had to alter the spreader system on an old Moth - the "spreader" is a single piece unit which meets both the shrouds and the forestay and pivots on the front of the mast. I swear it took me an hour of fiddling and remeasuring before I was happy that I had all four holes marked in the right places...
Not too much of that sort of thing can be going on if you want your new mass production boat to come in at a reasonable price. I'm sure they jig drill them at the factory, but even so...

Edited by JimC - 30 Jul 12 at 12:46pm