Do your spreader tips clamp onto your stays? General Forum Forums

So... All the boats I have had the spreader tips were attached to the stays. Not to say you couldn't move them if you put enough pressure on them but it was enough that the stay couldn't move freely unless you gave it a thump up or down  out at the end of the spreader beside the stay. I don't say this out if any real offical knowledge about spreader stay attachment but just what the 3 sailboats I have owned were like and the few friends have owned that I got a look at the spreader ends attached to the stays. For all I know everyone does it wrong. Also all my boats are between 1970 and 1984 era boats. So might not correlate to acceptable practice today. When I have replaced stays on my boats I simply redid them the way they already were and considered it right because "thats the way they already were" 🙂

one thing to note is that as you tighten the rig the forces are not inconsiderable and just lashed it becomes much much harder to move them at all. there is a lot of force pushing from the tip of the spreader, through the spreader to the mast. It holds stuff in place pretty good with stuff lashed or just snugged down. Its been a while but I think maybe we had to loosen stay to move tip up an inch or two while redoing ours. Don't hold me to that as it has been a few years 🙂 and memory isn't what it used to be.