Having watched the rake of the spreaders change over the last few years, we took the decision to make mast setup an easier proposition for all. We benefited by having Daniel Van Kirkhof race here a while ago and from his mast setup spec's we designed the spreader arms around what was working for us here.

The right combination even for a heavy weight sailor is substantial and I believ the new sails are all cut to account for the correct mast setup. Although we are in Asia, 70% of our sailors are Europeans working in the region. As such we have a variety of weights on the Taipan platforms here.

Generally we have run 60mm (+ - of spreader rake) and use about 42 on the Loos Gauge on the diamonds. We did discover a year ago that the correct anoumt of twist in the mainsail is the single biggest boost to boat speed - apart from just good sailing! Get the twist happening right and the boat is a rocket that will sail higher and faster...

We have close to 30mm of basic adjustment (roughly 30 - 60mm of rake) in 3 slots our composite spreaders. Adjustment is just a matter of popping the wire out and moving it to another slot. This saves heaps of time on the initial mast tuning process.

The arms are made of Epoxy with Uni-directional fibres. We are currently working on a 'mark 2' set that will see the trailing edge moved further aft to account for the extreme loads on the arm with such an' amount of rake.

At the moment the spreaders cost us Singapore Dollars $180/(approx. AUD 150 or thereabouts) pair which compares favourably with the AUD 280 for the imported Proctors. So every little bit in reducing the cost helps local sailors get into the sport - a good thing.