Hello all,
My mast is one of the mast jack style meaning that there is nothing at the bottom to prevent the mast from rotating (unlike the later models that fit into a metal cast step). When I bought the boat the spreaders had pins going through the mount points closest to the mast, but no pins on the outer holes to keep the spreaders locker in place. When I set the mast up I thought about putting pins in the outer holes, but it seemed as having pins in both would put a lot of backward force on the spreader bracket.
The pics below show what's happening on the water - please excuse the bird droppings on the deck. The last pic illustrates my concern. The path of the stays is to the aft of the mast. If the second pins are put into the bracket locking the spreaders forward, there could be a lot of strain on the bracket or the aluminum spreaders.
On my previous boats had a cast mast steps and spreader brackets that would allow the spreaders to pivot freely to allow them to align to the spreader path.
Has anyone experienced something similar? Advice?