Spreader Horizontal Position
Dave Peffer

1/1/2000
Hull #: 20

Greetings:

The drooping spreader problem appears to be occurring in several boats, so I passed this along to Gerry Douglas at Catalina, who designed the boat. He advises that the shrouds should be seized to the spreader tips with stainless steel wire, and this should have been done when the boat was commissioned, again if re-rigged. “Down angle is not correct and loads the spreader base excessively.” He further advises that trying to fix this with discontinuous rigging is “not the answer as it requires turnbuckles in all segments to compensate for stretch, unless done with rod.”

We would all be well advised to check that our spreaders are level, and that the shrouds have been well-fixed to the ends with wire. Gerry doesn’t say so directly, but “loads the spreader base excessively” reads to me like a threat of buckling