Old spreader brackets

[Tobydaisy]

They looked fine prior to raising the mast this spring, and they have been there for forty years. '74 C-22.
I'm talking about my original aluminum spreader brackets.
A guy at the marina who really knows his C22, looked up at mine and saw that they were original and told me that I needed to change them out.
I have ordered them from Cat Direct but really don't look forward to lowering the mast, drilling new holes, somehow getting the spacer up inside the mast, dealing with the spreader light wiring, and the twenty or thirty things that will come up during the project, as well as the number of tools and parts lost overboard.
Can someone ease the worries, and tell me to just wait until fall when I pull the boat out of the water?

 

[Cope]

They are cast aluminum and could fail at any time.
They could easily last another season or fail on the next tack.

Lowering the mast should not be an issue unless your on a mooring?

I would just go ahead and do it, rewire the mast with zipties (inside) so the wires dont slap, install new brackets (with antiseze) and never wory about spreader collapse and rig failure.

 

[whatcaneyedo]

Its an easy project with the mast down and probably only took me around an hour to complete. I think the trickiest part for me was putting the mast head back together afterwards with all of the halyards, pins and sheaves. Worse case scenario the mast falls over I guess. If you're prepared for that slight risk then you might be alright waiting until fall.