You can try looking more but I went through a lot of looking and this was all I could find. If anyone else knows of someone else that makes them or sells them post a link as this is something that 90% of our boats use that is a pretty old school part.

http://www.rigrite.com/Spars/S....._Wood.html

As this must be a common problem for all boats with wooden spreaders, can you refer me to a company which makes such fittings?  Could be fabricated, of course.

Best regards

Bob

http://downeasteryachts.com/fo.....ement#p829

One of the spreaders was rotted out and literally broken in two due to water coming in through a hole for the spreader light wire.  Stupid to bring the wire through the spreader.  So they are making up new spreaders from Douglas Fir.  Decided to not replace the spreader lights, but to have a combined steaming and deck light on the mast.

One question did come up was how to treat the outboard end of the spreaders.  The wood worker does not like boots as they can trap moisture inside and rot the wood.  But there should be some protection for the wood being worn out by the wire.  Any suggestions?

Thanks again as always.

Bob

bob

For someone to tell me that my 7 year old rigging is bad and needs to be replaced I would be very skeptical. They would need to show me dye tests on all fittings showing cracking in the swages on the ends of the cables. Stripped threads, abraded cable, broken strands, Rigging that has stretched to the point you can't tension it anymore as all the take up on the turnbuckles is gone. Extensive rust on the cable or in the swages. Not just a wipe it off stain layer but real rust. If the turnbuckles are older, depending on their construction I would want to see the same thing, visible evidence of degradation. quality bronze can last for decades as in more than 2 decades.

If they can't both tell you why it needs replacing and show you why then I would not do business with them. If they can show you one or two issues in specific stays but not others then I am also iffy if they are not giving you the option of just replacing those stays to make it safe. If at the same time they say "well for peace of mind or to keep the rigging the same age you might replace it all and we will give you a deal on a full rigging replace" then I would be ok, I understand. But if they say "your whole rig is unsafe and needs to be replaced" I would go get another opinion or two. Personally I would feel smoke being blown up my ass and they would never touch my boat as an issue of trust.

If the swages on the end of your stays are showing evidence of cracking  the last people either did it wrong or used substandard quality parts.

If they were talking about your turnbuckles then you could just replace those without replacing all the rigging unless you just want to.

Next I would want an itemized list of costs to replace the rig not just a one price quote. I would want to know where the wire came from and the specs on it. Exactly what brand and model of fittings on the wire as well as turnbuckles.

When I redid valkyr's we did it ourselves and went with good quality mechanical fittings both top and bottom on all stays. A lot more expensive than just swage fittings and we used 3/16 stainless wire (slightly less strength but better corrosion resitance. We moved up the size of the uppers to the same 9/32 that the lowers used to bump the strength up and only added a 4 or 5 lbs or less to the weight of the rig). still came in at 2200 dollars in materials. We reused the existing bronze turnbuckles. They were still in good shape even 20+ years old. I like stainless fittings with bronze turnbuckles. Using stainless and stainless can seize up. Bronze on stainless is like having anti-seize in it.

for the rigging, the wires were replaced 7 years ago, but the turnbuckles are older. Any advice on this issue? Probably have to bite the bullet, but have to ask.

thanks in advance 

Bob

Scott Carle said
I use a rigging gauge. I tend not to tighten it to specs though as standards are bout 1200 lbs on the lowers given the size and 800 to 900 lbs on the uppers. do some research but usually it is 10% of breaking strength I think. I tend to just get most of the stretch out of it and so that I cant pull on it much more than an inch out of line by hand. I'm out of town right now and don't have time to dig for more than that right now. do a search on the forums and on the home page for "tension" and see what it pulls up. After a while you get a feel for it and though I like to use a guage as it is more precise I would be ok just doing by by feel now. Big thing is keep the mast in column Don't let it bend in the middle.. get just a bit of pre-bend in it so that the top is bent toward aft. Not more than 4 inches or so.. Our boats aren't race boats with bendy masts  

You outboard fitting on your spreader is totally different than mine. Not bad just different. does exactly the same thing at the end of the day that mine does.

Will do my best not to turn the mast into a Banana. 

You outboard fitting on your spreader is totally different than mine. Not bad just different. does exactly the same thing at the end of the day that mine does.

How do you measure the tension on your standing rigging,- after loosening everything for the spreader removal ?
I could mark the turnbuckles but then I am not sure the previous owner had them up to the right tension in first place. Besides I want to do this right.

Belated MERRY CHRISTMAS !

Helmuth

Here is my recollection at this late date of our thinking, process and materials treatment. Just remember that it is a few years ago. Maybe take this and combine it with my earlier write ups in this topic to pull information out.

I think the blank we got was a rough cut board a true 2 inches thick. We milled it down from their to the shape of the spreaders and just on my rough recollection it was maybe 1.5 inches thick at the base tapering to maybe an inch thick or more at the tip. I think... honestly we just used the old ones as a template. It has to be the same thickness at the base to fit the fitting on the mast and also at the tip to fit the fitting there. The rest of it is flexible in thickness though I wouldn't go thinner than the old one personally. I do know that ours were thicker than the base by a hair and we notched them out to slide into the fitting on the mast.. same for the spreader tip. basically the thickness at the tip was the over all thickness of the tip fitting. Not the inside width of the tip that the spreader slid into. So if you slid your hand over the tip toward the spreader it was a smooth transition from fitting to wood. Same thing with the fitting at the mast. I think... then it just did a smooth tapper from one fitting to the other front to back and top to bottom.

When we got started with it like I said we used the originals as a template. They were a bit warped so we used a long straight edge to get our lines on the blank and used a table saw to cut out rough blanks for both spreaders. We made sure that the we cut the blanks out with the grain running straight from the center of the tip to the center of the  base to give the most strength in compression After getting the blanks cut out with the front to back dimensions roughed in we used a belt sander with a 36 grit belt to sand them down to the exact lines we drew in on the top of the blank to get the taper we needed. After getting the front to back dimensions we then drew in the top to bottom taper on either side of the spreaders from  base to tip with a pencil, again making sure it was centered on the grain from one end to the other. Then back to the belt sander to bring us down on the lines. At that point its just a matter of using a jig saw, chisel and sander to cut out the notches for the tip and base so that they fit inside the fittings snugly. Once we had it down to the lines we sanded with 80 grit, 120 grit and then 200 grit to get it nice and smooth. we didn't treat them at all before putting them us as we wanted the teak to weather a bit so a good varnish or surface treatment would stick to them when we treated them. Honestly I have never gotten around to treating them and it is what, 7 years later?, and they still look great.. just weathered silver but no damage from rot or anything at all. Gotta love good teak.

So now that we have said all that here is a post from years ago by long gone members of one of the older websites for our boats that has more good information. Mostly aimed at making a bowsprit but the wood choices apply to spreaders also.

http://downeasteryachts.com/in.....eplacement

thank you very much mate. You're a life saver again and again.

After New Year the old rotten spreaders come off. 
The thickness of your new spreaders is 2 inches ? Mine are a tad over 1 inch. 

Cheers

Helmuth

bow sprit is a project for the future on valkyr also. I keep thinking a nice 316 stainless square tube welded up with all the fittings on it as well as a nice platform on it.