The thread on flags reminded me of something I've been thinking about. Look at the same picture of my all too common flag rigging.
What's wrong with this picture?
It's the middle of the night and the boat is sailing hard. Someone needs to go forward and falls. Their hand misses the shroud and they grab the flag halyards, going down with their full weight clutching them in panic. The spreader is pulled down the stay and the heavily loaded rig goes over the side. It's one of those things that can happen although I've never heard of it.
I currently have a tight marlin seizing around the shroud below the spreader to keep it from sliding down (don't even get me started on one of my top pet peeves, drooping spreaders). However, covering stainless always is risky, especially in a high load area such as were the wire bends around the spreader tip. Whether that seizing is enough to support the weight of a person swinging on the flag halyards trying to avoid going overboard isn't something I particularly want to find out.
Part of my rigging re-fit and beefing up is going to be bringing back a forgotten piece of gear, spreader lifts, 1/8" wire run from a fitting near the spreader tips up to eyestraps on the mast. I'm not going to bother with turnbuckles, I'll just place the mast fittings so I need to preload the spreaders a bit in their sockets to insert the clevis pins. YMMV if you have a different kind of spreader mount. Mine won't let me get the spreaders all the way up to the perfect angle that bisects the shroud angle but you want the spreaders a bit lower than this with lifts so any slippage with maximum tension will be down.
Spreader lifts used to be a common piece of cruising gear but are one of those things racing and the "cruiser / racer" pushed off the stage in the quest for minimizing windage. Worth having in my view, at least for serious cruising.
What's wrong with this picture?
It's the middle of the night and the boat is sailing hard. Someone needs to go forward and falls. Their hand misses the shroud and they grab the flag halyards, going down with their full weight clutching them in panic. The spreader is pulled down the stay and the heavily loaded rig goes over the side. It's one of those things that can happen although I've never heard of it.
I currently have a tight marlin seizing around the shroud below the spreader to keep it from sliding down (don't even get me started on one of my top pet peeves, drooping spreaders). However, covering stainless always is risky, especially in a high load area such as were the wire bends around the spreader tip. Whether that seizing is enough to support the weight of a person swinging on the flag halyards trying to avoid going overboard isn't something I particularly want to find out.
Part of my rigging re-fit and beefing up is going to be bringing back a forgotten piece of gear, spreader lifts, 1/8" wire run from a fitting near the spreader tips up to eyestraps on the mast. I'm not going to bother with turnbuckles, I'll just place the mast fittings so I need to preload the spreaders a bit in their sockets to insert the clevis pins. YMMV if you have a different kind of spreader mount. Mine won't let me get the spreaders all the way up to the perfect angle that bisects the shroud angle but you want the spreaders a bit lower than this with lifts so any slippage with maximum tension will be down.
Spreader lifts used to be a common piece of cruising gear but are one of those things racing and the "cruiser / racer" pushed off the stage in the quest for minimizing windage. Worth having in my view, at least for serious cruising.
