Completed my spreader fix this weekend, overall a success but thought I would add some notes about differences I encountered:
-my bar was marked to insert from STBD > PORT; everything I read had said the opposite
-my bar was NOT marked for centering, we had to just play with it to get it right
-the up-swept angle of the two sides of the bar was not the same on both sides. When we got things together we could see that things were not the same on both sides and at first were blaming this defect. However, once we did some math we realized that the angle difference observed was more than could be account for by the defect. Upon further inspection we realized that a bit of the mast needed to be filed; it was forcing one side higher than the other. Once we did this the angles were acceptable.
-we had problems with the riveter at first (bought a Big Daddy riviter off ebay for the job). Once we figured it out what was wrong (user error), things went great. But I'm waiting on a few more rivets from Annapolis Rigging to finish the job.
-having the Big Daddy riviter was nice, if anyone wants to borrow it just let me know and I could ship it out. It fears no 1/4" rivet.
-for a $500 or whatever it was bit of metal work, they really should include some detailed instructions.
Overall I'm happy with the job. REALLY hated cutting all that material out of the mast though. I assume no one has had any problems with hard-driven J/30s with the Annapolis Rigging kit, so maybe its all in my head.
Finally, I just noticed on this thread that the topping lift was supposed to be run IN FRONT of the spreader bar instead of behind - I ran everything behind - anyone know if this will be a problem?
-dan
