Protection against chafe from swept-back spreaders

[srah1953]

What is the best kind of covering to put on spreaders to minimise chafing on the mainsail? With swept-back spreaders you don't have to be far off the wind for the mainsail to be hard up against them. I occasionally see pictures of blue water boats with what appears to be something like the end of a kitchen mop around them!
Thanks

 

[VicS]

Baggy wrinkles, not kitchen mops!

Any good book on blue water sailing will tell you how to make them ( and Wikipedia)

( and in the good old days PBO magazine would have shown you )

1. Take one kitchen mop.....

 

[Lakesailor]

I solved this problem by selling the boat.

 

[VO5]

Definitive explanation : The Ashley Book of Knots, Page 553 refers.

 

[bbg]

The sail should also have a patch stuck on where it touches the spreader.

 

[William_H]

Spreader tip chafe

I have the same problem as do all fractional rig with swept spreaders. For me on a small boat it is easy to fit insulation tape around the spreader end. I go sort of diagonal outside the bottom of the wire inside the top for a few turns then outside the top inside the bottom of the wire then around inside the wire until a lump is made of soft plastic tape. I still get chafe on the main sail and also along the full length batten where it hits the wire. When you have identified the chafe points get a sail maker to fit patches on the sail.
I try when sailing to pull the main sheet in a bit to minimise pressure on the wires so minimise chafe.
Maybe there are better ways I will watch for answers. good luck olewill

 

[oldsaltoz]

Sheep skin socks, will last many seasons present a very soft but hard wearing surface larger then the spreader tip.

Good luck and fair winds.

 

[Blue5]

Our boat came with Armorflex pipe insulation on the spreaders, it comes split over the length so slides over the back edge, held in place by a couple of turns of insulating tape.

Works well

 

[RobinBirch]

BALLS!

Tennis balls- that is. With a craft knife cut out a hole to take the spreader tip, then slice to take the shroud. Attack with good quality gaffer tape leaving the 'outer half' of the tennis ball uncovered. The sail then rubs along the soft outer.

Been fine since 2007 when I remasted Hanser

 

[The engineer]

Similair to a previous but much cheaper than armorflex is plumbers foam pipe insulation, the same split tube idea.
It does not last for ever but used to last me a trans atlantic almost permanently downwind. +1 to a patch on the sail to back it upl.

 

[neil_s]

I made plywood 'wheels' which run on the shroud above the spreader. You can also buy a similar plastic item intended to stop deck-hugging genoas chafeing on the guard wires.

Neil

 

[Lakesailor]

It's amazing that rigs are acceptable with such obvious flaws.
The manufacturers and designers seem not to have dealt with this over the years.
Has no-one come out with spreaders with soft tips or sail fenders. Do they even reinforce the sails as supplied?
It rather sounds like launching a new car, which people buy, with a flaw like not being able to get full lock on the steering in reverse, or being unable to open the tailgate if the handbrake is on.
If you must have fractional rigs, rise up and demand proper design.