What happens to wooden spreaders that have not been maintained on an 84 Cat 30? I plan on replacing them but it never made sense to make them out of wood to begin with.
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Rod Worrell
Spreaders: Wood or Metal?
Roger, just last weekend we replaced the wooden spreaders on our '79 Catalina 30, Dixie. This was prompted initially by busting out the portside spreader in a race earlier this Spring. Fortunately we didn't lose the mast. I wanted to replace them with Aluminum. Catalina has a retrofit kit, but it requires taking the mast down to put some compression sleeves inside the mast. I didn't like that option due to the yard time and cost. On this web site was mentioned an alternative metal spreader replacement kit from a group on the West Coast, in Portland if I recall. Someone else here on the web may recall their name. In any case I could never get through to talk to someone at that company. Ultimately, I made new wooden spreaders using the pattern from Catalina. Besides the wood structure, I fiberglassed them to prolong their life and water resistance. At our slip, I put on one at a time. Their is an aluminum plate on the top and bottom of each spreader right at the mast bracket. They take five spreader bolts (1/4")and two larger mast bracket bolts (3/8"). The job wasn't difficult. Making them wasn't either. It's just finding the time. I will still want to replace them eventually with metal, but at least we can sail again and when I schedule a haulout or find a source of metal spreaders, we will replace them then. The wooden ones I expect will give us 5 - 10 years of service and didn't cost more than $30 to make by the way. Does anyone reading this remember the outfit I was refering to?
Roger, just last weekend we replaced the wooden spreaders on our '79 Catalina 30, Dixie. This was prompted initially by busting out the portside spreader in a race earlier this Spring. Fortunately we didn't lose the mast. I wanted to replace them with Aluminum. Catalina has a retrofit kit, but it requires taking the mast down to put some compression sleeves inside the mast. I didn't like that option due to the yard time and cost. On this web site was mentioned an alternative metal spreader replacement kit from a group on the West Coast, in Portland if I recall. Someone else here on the web may recall their name. In any case I could never get through to talk to someone at that company. Ultimately, I made new wooden spreaders using the pattern from Catalina. Besides the wood structure, I fiberglassed them to prolong their life and water resistance. At our slip, I put on one at a time. Their is an aluminum plate on the top and bottom of each spreader right at the mast bracket. They take five spreader bolts (1/4")and two larger mast bracket bolts (3/8"). The job wasn't difficult. Making them wasn't either. It's just finding the time. I will still want to replace them eventually with metal, but at least we can sail again and when I schedule a haulout or find a source of metal spreaders, we will replace them then. The wooden ones I expect will give us 5 - 10 years of service and didn't cost more than $30 to make by the way. Does anyone reading this remember the outfit I was refering to?
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LaDonna Bubak - Catalina Owners
Catalina Direct
Rod, you're most likely thinking of Catalina Direct. They're in CA (Sacramento??) and provide hard to get parts for most older Catalina models. I just checked their site
Rod, you're most likely thinking of Catalina Direct. They're in CA (Sacramento??) and provide hard to get parts for most older Catalina models. I just checked their site
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d rubin
aluminum spreaders
we bought aluminum spreaders at "sailnet.com". i sent them an original they sent two new spreaders back- only cost $300.
we bought aluminum spreaders at "sailnet.com". i sent them an original they sent two new spreaders back- only cost $300.
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Rick Arnold
go to jsi-sailnet
Roger, I recently lost my port side spreader on my '76 cat 30 ,arrow. JSI was able to faricate new aluminium ones that cast 310.00 and had back in about a weeks time. Catalina direct had a back ordered item for 290.00 but the mast had to come down. Talk at the dock was the wooden ones lasted 24 years and should last another 10 at least, theydidn't last ten days!!! The new ones look great and the mast stayed intact...
Roger, I recently lost my port side spreader on my '76 cat 30 ,arrow. JSI was able to faricate new aluminium ones that cast 310.00 and had back in about a weeks time. Catalina direct had a back ordered item for 290.00 but the mast had to come down. Talk at the dock was the wooden ones lasted 24 years and should last another 10 at least, theydidn't last ten days!!! The new ones look great and the mast stayed intact...
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Bob Camarena
Catalina vs. JSI Sailnet
It might not be completely clear from the earlier posts, but the JSI Sailnet spreaders are made to fit your existing brackets. Ironically, the Catalina version is of a different configuration requiring that you remove the mast to replace the old brackets, which is not a trivial job. I haven't done it yet, but when I do, I'll opt for the JSI approach. The only disadvantage I can see is that you're out of commission while they have your old spreaders. It wouldn't be too difficult to fashion some temporary replacements using your old ones as a pattern. Straight grain Douglas Fir would be a good, relatively inexpensive (but somewhat heavier) substitute for the originals which I think are made of spruce. Personally, although I will eventually convert to aluminum, I think the wooden spreaders have received somewhat of a bum rap. Boats had wooden spreaders for years before aluminum took over and they weren't prone to failure. I repainted the wooden spreaders on my '81 C-30 a couple of years ago and could find no signs of rot, cracking or deterioration despite the fact that the tops were almost completely bare. For those of you who do continue with wooden spreaders, think about using a high grade exterior house paint. The spreaders are so high up there's no point in using an expensive marine paint and the house paint is formulated to stand up quite well to the elements. If you absolutely have to use varnish, paint the tops and varnish only the bottom and edges.
It might not be completely clear from the earlier posts, but the JSI Sailnet spreaders are made to fit your existing brackets. Ironically, the Catalina version is of a different configuration requiring that you remove the mast to replace the old brackets, which is not a trivial job. I haven't done it yet, but when I do, I'll opt for the JSI approach. The only disadvantage I can see is that you're out of commission while they have your old spreaders. It wouldn't be too difficult to fashion some temporary replacements using your old ones as a pattern. Straight grain Douglas Fir would be a good, relatively inexpensive (but somewhat heavier) substitute for the originals which I think are made of spruce. Personally, although I will eventually convert to aluminum, I think the wooden spreaders have received somewhat of a bum rap. Boats had wooden spreaders for years before aluminum took over and they weren't prone to failure. I repainted the wooden spreaders on my '81 C-30 a couple of years ago and could find no signs of rot, cracking or deterioration despite the fact that the tops were almost completely bare. For those of you who do continue with wooden spreaders, think about using a high grade exterior house paint. The spreaders are so high up there's no point in using an expensive marine paint and the house paint is formulated to stand up quite well to the elements. If you absolutely have to use varnish, paint the tops and varnish only the bottom and edges.
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Steve
Compression sleeve???
Can someone please explain how the compression sleeve gets properly located inside the mast when replacing the spreaders?
Can someone please explain how the compression sleeve gets properly located inside the mast when replacing the spreaders?
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