Attaching Spreaders on a 222

[treeman]

I'm trying to figure out the proper way to attach my spreaders on my O'day 222.

When preparing my boat for winter storage, I removed my spreaders. That involved removing some rigging tape. Once I got the rigging tape off, it appeared that the spreaders were attached to the mast fittings with sheet metal screws. (poorly fitted, one going into each hole) I doubt this was the stock attachment method.

Can anyone give guidance?

Thanks,

Dan

 

[Joe11688]

I'm trying to figure out the proper way to attach my spreaders on my O'day 222.

When preparing my boat for winter storage, I removed my spreaders. That involved removing some rigging tape. Once I got the rigging tape off, it appeared that the spreaders were attached to the mast fittings with sheet metal screws. (poorly fitted, one going into each hole) I doubt this was the stock attachment method.

Can anyone give guidance?

Thanks,

Dan

What make is the mast on your O'Day 222 ? O'Day used three or four different spar manufacturers back then. My mast was manufactured by Z-Diffusion (Z-Spar) and it has internal halyards. Your mast and boom could be Dwyer Mfg.
Removing the spreaders every year is an excellent idea. I've been doing this very thing ever since I've owned my boat.
When I remove my spreaders I leave the stay connected to the end of the spreader and just roll the stay up into an 18" circle and tape it. I hang the stays in my cellar. My CDI Roller Furler is stretched out down cellar on one of the overhead beams.

When I prepare the mast for storage, I raise both halyard shackles to the top of the mast and coil the halyards close to the mast. I then wrap the mast with long two foot wide strips of polytarp. I use my mast as a ridge pole for my main polytarp.
The spreader sockets are riveted to the mast on my boat. Each of my spreaders are held in place to the socket by two rigging pins w/ round cotter rings.
Check out this site to see if you can identify your mast and rigging. http://www.rigrite.com/Spars/Rig-Rite_Spars/RigRite_Masts.html
Maybe you could take some pictures of what you have and upload them to this thread.
Joe

 

[treeman]

Hmmm, I'm not sure who made my spar. I will need to check that out. (boat is currently about 45 minutes away) It is a 1984, if that helps?

 

[Joe11688]

You really need to go by the make of the spars. You should try to get a rough sketch of the outline of the mast with an accurate length and width measurement so that you can identify the model number of the mast. They made a number of different size masts for these boats. Check out this site and you'll see what I mean.
http://www.dwyermast.com/families.asp?cat1ID=20&cat1Name=Masts
If your mast was made by Dwyer, it could be any one of these pictured.

 

[treeman]

I uncovered the boat this afternoon. It appears that I have a Dwyer mast. I am attaching photos of the spreader bracket and spreader ends. I think I mentioned that there seemed to be held to the bracket with self-tapping screws and taped over with rigging tape. Each bracket and spreader has 2 holes, approx. 1/8 in diameter, 180 degrees opposed. Should I use cotter pins? Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[Joe11688]

I uncovered the boat this afternoon. It appears that I have a Dwyer mast. I am attaching photos of the spreader bracket and spreader ends. I think I mentioned that there seemed to be held to the bracket with self-tapping screws and taped over with rigging tape. Each bracket and spreader has 2 holes, approx. 1/8 in diameter, 180 degrees opposed. Should I use cotter pins? Thanks in advance for the advice.

If a rigging pin doesn't fit into the holes, I would say they used cotter pins.
My spreaders have two rigging pins for each spreader but my spreaders are a lot different than yours. I use cotter rings to lock in my rigging pins.

 

[peterbud]

rigging a 222

I uncovered the boat this afternoon. It appears that I have a Dwyer mast. I am attaching photos of the spreader bracket and spreader ends. I think I mentioned that there seemed to be held to the bracket with self-tapping screws and taped over with rigging tape. Each bracket and spreader has 2 holes, approx. 1/8 in diameter, 180 degrees opposed. Should I use cotter pins? Thanks in advance for the advice.

I have the same boat with the same mast and have been using cotterpins for years. Just be sure to get the right size.

 

[Joe11688]

Cotter pins will work. Just tape over them so that your sail never comes in contact with them.

Years ago, I got into leather work and decided to make some spreader boots out of leather. I used a piece of paper to make a pattern by folding it in half and laying it over the end of the spread with the stay connected. I drew out the boot on one side of the paper and cut it out with scissors and opened it up at the fold. It was an easy project after I transfered the pattern over to the leather. I punched out the holes and used whipping twiine to attach them to the spreaders.

I made them about five years ago and they are still in great condition. I'd like to make note that at the end of each boating season I remove my spreaders and stays from my mast and store them down my cellar along with my roller furler. I use my mast as a ridge pole for my large polytarp.
Joe

 

[treeman]

Boots

Joe:

A good pair of leather boots makes 'em look sexy every time!

Thanks, all for the advice. This is my big "1st launch" weekend. Wish me well!

 

[Joe11688]

Joe:

A good pair of leather boots makes 'em look sexy every time!

Thanks, all for the advice. This is my big "1st launch" weekend. Wish me well!

I wish you very well. My boat is still sitting on the trailer next to my house with the mast up. A couple of the guys installed all the mooring balls on the chains last week at the club but I think it's going to be a while when our docks go back in the water.
Today I bought about $50 worth of food and stowed it in the cabin. I'm going to wait a while to put my outboard on the bracket and test run it. The days are still a little on the cool side but it's supposed to warm up next week. Good luck with the splash!
Joe

 

[OdayDave]

My 1985 O'Day 222 had cotter pins for the spreaders on the Dwyer mast. The O'Day 25 that I currently have (1983 again with a Dwyer mast) uses stainless steel bolts with nylock nuts. However, I wouldn't drill out the holes to make any changes. The cotter pins worked fine. I did always wrapped plenty of electrician's tape around then to keep any sharp edges shielded.

One last trick that I learned after birds took up residence on the spreaders and made a mess of the deck. I strung monafilament fishing line between the cotter pin head and the top of the spreader boot (wrapped 6 or 7 times) and then tied it off. This was tight when the stays were taut. I never had another problem with birds on the spreaders.

Dave
s/v Lagniappe
O'Day 25

 

[Joe11688]

That's a great tip Dave. I find Poo Poos on my deck occasionally. I'll give that one a try.

 

[treeman]

That's a great tip Dave. I find Poo Poos on my deck occasionally. I'll give that one a try.

It happened!! Rigged, launched, sailed and docked -not sure I could have done it w/o this forum. Many thanks!

 

[Joe11688]

Beautiful! Our docks are due to go into the water this weekend so I'll probably have my boat in the water shortly afterward. I just don't want to have the only boat sitting on a mooring behind the club.

Us wind boat skippers have an advantage over the power boaters in that as long as we can get to our boats, we only need the wind to make them move with gas prices the way they are today.
Have a great sailing season!
Joe