Well, after a long drive to dallas and a visit with Airborne I now have two 5.2 masts. My old one and his old one.

The mast I bought has swept spreader bars and my old one does not. Would it be worth it to switch over the few things I have added to my mast so I can run the mast with swept spreaders?

I would like to add that I am probably going to buy a square top main from whirlwind sails. I guess the swept bars would allow me to put prebend in the mast, but I honestly don't understand it well enough to know if this is worth doing.

I kinda want to switch just because the new mast looks better, so what do you all think.

Both are going to be used because I think we have found another 5.2 with a bend mast.

could you swap just the spreaders?

spreader rake is something they all seem to have now so if you are going to rig everything else up to new spec you may as well do those

but if you are not single type racing it is hard to see if you'll ever notice the difference

The spreader attachment points are at differnt locations so that isn't an option.

But yeah I figure I will go ahead and switch the stuff out, I might just leave the other mast rigged and buy new stuff so the other mast is ready for my friends 5.2 when we get his spin stuff.

If memory serves me correctly, the older 5.2 masts had a spreader bar that went straight through the mast (solid rod), whereas the newer ones had a riveted fitting on the mast for the spreaders. I don't think I'd take that rod out.
Why not just switch masts completely?

That is my plan, but I have all the spinnaker and downhaul stuff on the old one so I will have to switch it all over.

I am just wondering if it is worth drilling out the 20 or so stainless rivets.

20 rivets for the spin stuff? Surely you jest...????

Okay, 20 might have been a little much, but between the spin stuff and downhaul stuff it is above 10 probably 15.

use the raked spreaders luke....

Use the mast with the raked spreaders (don't switch the spreaders out). The hole that the old style spreaders goes through is a bit of a weak spot.

Yeah, that's the spot I can't seem to be able to waterproof properly on my mast. The spreader bar moves around a little bit so no amount of silicon gunk seems to be able to stay there for more than a few weeks. Any good suggestion to make this part waterproof is welcome.

For the spin you need two rivets to fix a block way up the mast. You then need to drill two smalls holes in the sail track to make a loop at the spinnaker top. That's it. Nothing more is needed for a spinnaker on the mast itself right?

For the downhaul, it depends on your setup. I have a 5-1 downhaul with just one pivoting block riveted in the sailtrack at the bottom of the mast and two cheek blocks on the side. That's two rivets per side, plus two for the block: total 6.

I guess a dual exit 8-1 setup would end up with what, 4 rivets for each exit blocks? Total 8.

So 10 rivets tops. What are you using the other for?

Just curious.

Regarding pre-bend.
1. The new sail would need to be cut for the pre-bend.
2. I doubt that the swept spreaders on the newer mast were with the intent of mast prebend. I think they were swept back to reduce interference with the jib. I believe that the Nacra manual for that mast still specs out relatively loose diamond wires.

On the spinnaker rig I bought the bale that the Inter boats use and have it on the mast, then above that I have a small cheek block so that is 8 rivets right there. Then the downhaul stuff, I have designed my own and all the blocks are mounted on the mast and it comes out to 6 rivets, I just counted. So 14 total.

I will just use the swept spreader mast, but should I worry about prebend?

That is between you and your sailmaker. He may already have something for the 5.2. Would he want to attempt a pre-bend design for you? Assuming that your mast/spreaders are actually capable of pre-bend.

Yeah, he does alreayd have a 5.2 sail, so I don't think I will worry about prebend. But I might mention it to him and see what he thinks.

pepin, i haven't gotten my old 5.2 mast down yet so can't say what is happening but if you are having problems sealing your speader/mast join it is probably because the through bolt? is a smaller diameter than the hole for it in the mast and as the mast flexes the diamond wires move the spreader around with enough force to push out soft stuff like silicon sealant

you could make up some washers that fill that space and then epoxy them in. if you ever need to pull it apart you could use heat on the spreader bar, not the mast, to release the epoxy

but the spreader bar is pretty low down the mast and if that's underwater then the boat is already turtled isn't it?

Yeah, that is what I was thinking, if the spreaders are under you already have a problem. When my boat is on it's side only about 3-4 feet of mast are in the water.

I should fix the spreaders not because they are leaking water in but because they are letting air out, something that is as important. At it lets the air out really easilly the water pressure at the top of the mast forces water in. If the spreaders where tight the pressure inside the mast would keep most of the water out.

Anyway, sealing that mast that's too much work. I have a really limited time for sailing activities and I'd rather spend time on the water than fixing some bits or bobs... So my mast is leaking, it's not the end of the world as I'm sailing on a reservoir with trained safety coxswains present at all time <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. I've only capsized twice in 18 months, so it's not something that happens too often either.

Only twice in 18 months.....you must not be doing something right. I have turned over 4 times in 1 day before.

But if you have safety people there then it sounds like you are covered.