Catalina 27 Mast

[sugar and spice]

I have a catalina 27 and I am going to step the mast when I get home in about 3 weeks (from Iraq) to put in new wiring, anchor, steaming and deck lights, windex etc. I have seen the SS spreader brackets from Catalina Direct and they have a piece about "you can lose your mast with no warning with the old aluminum brackets" and so on, as if it happens on a regular basis. Does anyone have any experience with or seen a catalina 27 spreader bracket just come apart out of no where? Should I really be concerned about it? My rigging is in good shapeother wise.

Thanks!

[sugar and spice]

Well, no replies, it mus not be a problem......or no one else has a Catalina 27?

[Charlie]

HI Clint:

Best chance would be to find a Catalina 27 website. That is too particuilar a question for this forum meaning particuilar to one type of boat.

[cal40john]

When you've seen enough broken stuff sometimes it gets mixed up as to what was broken on what boat. IIRC our club's Catalina 27 spreader casting failed. I believe the mast was down for some other repair and when the spreader was pulled off you could see the casting was cracked. We also replaced the eyes that the lowers connect to with the u-bolts from Catalina Direct.

We also had an aluminum spreader casting fail on a Neptune 24, but that one had help. Someone had replaced the bridle on the spinnaker pole with an eyestrap in the middle of the pole as a fix for the broken bridle. Predictably the first time there was any wind the spinnaker pole folded up and the shock to the mast broke the spreader base, I believe it was the part sticking out the bottom to attach the lowers to snapped off.

Don't know how common it is for these bases to fail, but I'm not impressed with lightweight aluminum castings.

John

[sugar and spice]

Thanks for the info.

I guess at a cost of $250 to replace the brackets, both tubes and the end caps its worth the peace of mind. My lower shroud chainplates are a little different, I guess they changed them for the tabernacle.