Want To Buy: Spreaders

[antoha]

hello,

i have wooden spreaders (single set), and i just don't enjoy the prospect of additional maintenance (the boat is a 1968 and has enough teak elsewhere). looking to replace with smth non-wooden: i suppose aluminum is my best bet? mast itself is aluminum, and is not painted.

if someone is has a pair not being used, i will be happy to take them off your hands. a yard next door said a pair could be had from them for $500, but that seems a bit rich for my blood at the moment. any idea what they should/could cost?

thank you!
anton

[brantleychuck]

I wrapped mine in fiberglassbefore







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[antoha]

Makes sense, worth a try. How much maintenance has it been since? Did you have to dry them indoors for a while? Is it just one layer of glass?
Thank you for the great advice!


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[Wind River]

Originally Posted by antoha

hello,

i have wooden spreaders (single set), and i just don't enjoy the prospect of additional maintenance (the boat is a 1968 and has enough teak elsewhere). looking to replace with smth non-wooden: i suppose aluminum is my best bet? mast itself is aluminum, and is not painted.

if someone is has a pair not being used, i will be happy to take them off your hands. a yard next door said a pair could be had from them for $500, but that seems a bit rich for my blood at the moment. any idea what they should/could cost?

thank you!
anton

I built a new set of wood spreaders for my boat.
I had a local guy do the shaping and tapering but with his labor, the cost of the wood (Sitka spruce), epoxy and Awgrip I had more than $500 into mine. Not to mention the time. Aluminum ones made to my specs would have been $900. If those are finished for $500, I would say it is a bargain.

If I had known I would have come that close to the cost of the aluminum I would have done that. I think at the time there was a long wait for the aluminum though.

[Perstarebob]

Are they bad or are you just worried ? Seems like the original wood ones have lasted 45 years .

[roverhi]

Paint the wooden spreaders and slap a new coat on every five years or so. That's hardly enough extra work to justify dropping money on an aluminum set. Also with aluminum you'll probably need different brackets to mount them to the mast, another expense

[antoha]

Just worried (bought boat 5 years ago, surveyed fine, but I never did anything to the spreaders since taking ownership). Previous owner also had significantly more money than I do (boat was barn stored without mast every year and commissioned properly every year, with varnishing and painting work outsourced; I can go bankrupt just thinking about that in the New York area).

Can I get aluminum spreaders to use the existing brackets? If not - why not?

Also: the mast is not original to the boat (don't know why it was replaced, happened before previous owner), but probably still more than 20 yrs old.

[belizesailor]

Check with a salvage reseller lile SailorMan in Ft Lauderdale, they might have something.

[sanibel sailor]

try RigRite, they bought out a bunch of old suppliers. Do you know what brand the mast is? Wild guess- Metalmast.

Also- Your boat is a "Northeast" boat. Second hand shops in NE are more likely to have something than FL- there are a few around Narragansett Bay.