Spreaders

[Interested Party]

When did national 12s start moving from diamonds to spreaders on alloy masts?  My Starfish has its original mast complete with diamond.  It used to have a wheel kicker arrangement as well, however that has long since been removed/lost.
Purely on performance, should I consider replacing the mast with one with spreaders?  Or could I fit speaders to my existing mast.  Or should I just forget about it and rejoice in the fact that I still have a more or less original set-up?
Cheers
Steve Hawkins

[Dave Croft]

Hi Steve,
My first 12 was a 1965 Mk12 bought in 1971. It came with spreaders and I would be fairly sure they were original fit. Diamonds are good for controlling sideways bend but do nothing to prevent fore and aft bend whereas spreaders do both. If you feel the mast is a bit too bendy for the sail you are using then spreaders would be the way to go otherwise there would not be much point. Some years ago I put an old Proctor Mk11 back on the water. It has some horrid fully-swinging spreaders. I decided to fit the more modern type but it was an expensive business.
Dave
 

[Interested Party]

Its just something to think about bfore I look at new sails seriously.

[Chadders]

Hi Steve
No reason why you cant retro fit limited swing spreaders to your mast and that is what most of the vintage fleet are using. 
Historically I guess around about the time that Sparkle was built swinging spreaders were beginning to appear my first MK 12 N2337 had them.  The first ones were not limited in any way which means that under some conditions the mast can bend backwards in the middle as the top goes forwards and self destruct.  The next generation were limited by a simple bolt through a hole to stop the spreader swing too far forward and the current generation have adjusters on them and often reply on posh carbon string to stop them inverting. 
I would suggest give her a try first before doing anything.  If you decide to upgrade try a boat jumble for bits or get back to me although I think I gave my last spare set to Paul Turner or Brian Herring (I have supplied both with them) I can check my spares stock again but am not confident.  The position up the mast is suggested in the tuning guide (online on this website) as is the ammount of push out and forwards this is a good starting point but I would not recommend going to the rig tension in  the book quite as the older hulls may not take it.  A new set of adjustable spreaders is available from Pinnel and Bax or other chandlery but they are not cheap I suspect.  You will need to pop rivet a new bracket to your mast and I would suggest filling the old holes with epoxy.  If you really want traditional I may also have a kicker winch, they were replaced by kicker levers (crew wrecking devices if ever there was one) but most of us now use a cascade system now and use Dynema or similar.  Hope that helps.  Howard C aka Chadders.