O'Day 20 Spreader Repair

[Tomkatohio]

I bought a '70's O'Day 20 last season but haven;t had a chance to get her in to Lake Erie yet.

Before I bought the boat, somehow the spreader tubes were bent enough to kink them. I had to drill out the remains of the cotter pins that held the tubes to the through bolt, but there was so much corrosion I couldn't remove either spreader. I thought I had seen a past discussion in the forums about an upgrade spreader assembly for this boat, but I haven't been able to find the posts. Am I crazy, or is there such an upgrade that would include the through bolt and both tubes? If not, I may have to just cut the tubes off and start from scratch with stock replacement parts (if I can find them).

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Jackdaw]

Look here.

http://www.drmarine.com/products.asp?cat=151

 

[Tomkatohio]

Thanks - That's the old style spreader bolt. I need a new spreader bolt and the spreader tubes themselves. Somewhere I thought I saw a "new style" set up. I'll try sending DR Marine an email.
Thanks again for replying

 

[Joe11688]

Thanks - That's the old style spreader bolt. I need a new spreader bolt and the spreader tubes themselves. Somewhere I thought I saw a "new style" set up. I'll try sending DR Marine an email.
Thanks again for replying

Rudy gets emails by the thousands. You need to call him on the phone.

 

[Tomkatohio]

Thanks for the advice. I will definitely call.

 

[Sunbird22358]

Scroll down a little further on the D&R Marine parts page for the 20. There yo uwill find the spreader bracket used on the 1976-78 O'DAY 20 (taller, fractional rig) This same braket is used on the Javelin, DS, Mariner, and I think the 1980-83 O'DAY 22.

 

[Tomkatohio]

I'm not sure what this bracket does. Are they part of a setup meant to replace the standard through bolt and the spreader tubes somehow?

Haven't had a chance to call D&R yet.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Sunbird22358]

You described your spreader setup to be the "newer" version, not using the through the mast bolt, my assumption then was that your boat is a 1976-78 model with the taller, fractional rig. On those masts the spreaders were mounted using the above pictured brackets which allow the spreader to swing forward but not aft. Generally, the spreader will only swing when there is little to no tension on the shroud, like when the mast is unstepped. Tension on the shroud will generally "lock" the spreader from swinging. I have added a drawing of how the spreader mounts to these brackets. (the drawing is from my DS II manual, so does not show the lower shrouds as used on the 20)
These were used on the fractional rig, the earlier (1973-75) masthead rig used the other spreader bracker setup that had the bolt through the mast.
All of this assumes that your mast is original and not an aftermarket replacement.

Perhaps you could post a picture of your mast showing the present spreader setup? Or, at least what is there?

 

[Tomkatohio]

Thanks for the useful information Sunbird. Sorry for the long delay, but I have been travelling too much. My mast does have the through bolt. I believe that the boat is a 1974, so your comments above do fit. Now that I see your drawing, I may have seen something similar in the past and thought that this new setup replaced the old through bolt setup. Do you know if this could be done, or am I stuck with the through-bolt spreaders? Thanks again,
Tom

 

[Sunbird22358]

I don't think the "geometry" would work to use the newer setup on the original masthead rig. The spreaders on hte fractional rig were "swept back" and the shroud chainplates were located a bit further aft on the fractional rig. It is possible that you could convert to the newer-style spreaders and brackets, and the spreaders would still orient correctly (maybe?) however, those brackets use a 5/8" dia. spreader, the "old" style use a 7/8" dia. spreader.
I did notice one thing..... on the D&R web site, Rudy lists 2 different brackets for the 7/8" spreaders used on the masthead rig, look just above the one that is a through bolt..... that one may be a socket with a tang welded on for the lower shroud. No picture, but I think it may be the bracket that I have pictured below? That one would still use a bolt through the mast, as far as I know.
The attached pic shows the 2 types of spreaders used on the 20. Top one is for the fractional rig, bottom for the masthead rig. These are from the DWYER Mast catalog, DWYER was one of the companies that supplied spars to O'DAY, however many companies use the same parts. (Kenyon and Zephyr also made O'Day spars.) (Newer O'DAYs [mid-late 1980s] may have had Isomat or Z-Spar masts, those were very different from older styles)

 

[Tomkatohio]

Thank you Sunbird. This is exactly the information I needed. My spreaders are definitely the lower set you pictured above. I'll follow up with D&R as a start.
Thanks again. Hope to have her out on the Lake at the end of May.
Tom