J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Spreader thru-bars

Ummmm... I think I paid 1400. TOTAL for new rigging, including putting the bar in the mast. Your rigger estimate is too high. Its not a difficult fix when you have the "kit" took about an hour... and without the mast down...here at the dock in St Thomas. DO NOT DELAY THIS REFIT... another J30 mast failed at the spreaders in Rolex Regatta last week, blowing 20ish...

Plus Dow Jones at the North Americans this past year. First windward leg I think it was. That sucked. Amazing the number of boats that have not had this done yet.

David
#397

Annapolis rigging will sell you the kit for $400. including the pop rivets, markings on the bar as to how it goes thru...only one way I guess. Call them. As far as I know, the class "approved" this upgrade to the mast... and we all kno whow it is when you don't follow the "exact" one design rules...

Annapolis rigging does have the kits. I spoke with them two weeks ago about some other things and they mentioned that I look at the spreaders for signs of stress cracks...time to get up the pole. Your estimate of $2,200 is a rip off at best. Let me know if you want the number for Annapolis Rigging.

Update: Hall Spars kit seems to Missing In Action at Torresons. I took advantange of that, redirected the project back to the $400 Annapolis Rigging Kit. They sell the Hall Spars spreader thru-bar kit for $1200. They don't offer a J/30 kit. It is frustrating seeing that people have gotten joy on this project for $400 and I can't seem to crack the code. When was the most recent purchase of either the Hall kit or the Annap kit that you guys know of ? What are the design differences between the two ? Perhaps the entire design has changed with the Hall kit, and perhaps it's true that Annap got out of offering theirs, although this has been a strange trip.

I have access to a cnc plasma cutteer, a 100 ton press punch, tig and mig welders, and stainless steel. From what I hear ther really isn't much to these kits other than some kind of stainless steel bar that goes through the mast. If someone has a sketch or drawing or photograpg of these bars I would be glad to see if I could duplicate them. My guess is that I could fabricate them for about $50.00 or so. The rivets I am sure are available somewhere. I haven't seen the kit myself so I'd need to see what all is in the kit.

I can shed a bit of light on at least part of the picture from my experience. I believe Annapolis Rigging previously offered a saddle that used the existing spreaders and so far as I know did not have a thru bar. Bebop has a Hall mast that came with the thru bar. It is shaped like a boomerang and I believe machined from cast aluminum. The spreaders fit snuggly over the tips of the bar and are held in place by one clevis pin per side. Next time we pull the rig to travel I will try to remember to take some photos and measurements. Here is a similar item for the J/24 courtesy APS: http://www.apsltd.com/Tree/d108000/e106218.asp

Spoke with Annapolis Rigging a couple of days ago. They fabricate a thru bar that is compatible with the orginal equipment Kenyon (Rig Rite) 4060 J30 mast section and spreaders. You remove and discard old spreader brackets. The new kit comes with a SS reinforcing plate that rivits into the existing bracket holes in the mast, but has a hole cut out of center of the SS plates to allow the thru bar to pass through. They are making a kit now for a customer...price $450.

The other option is the Hall kit, but you cannot use your old spreaders. Hall supplies the kit for $950K, I am not sure if this includes spreaders. The Hall spreaders are a little more tapered and aerodynamic than the orginals with the Kenyon spar. I do not know if the Hall kit makes provision for a SS reinforcing bracket over the existing rivit holes...I would like to find out how this system works. Need to make choice this season.

Hall "gives" you new spreaders with the purchase of their $950 kit.

Why didn't Annap Rigg'g return my call to tell me that when I called to purchase their kit, and why did they then tell Torresons that they don't have a kit for J/30's, they simply resell the Hall kit for $1250 ? Bizarre. I wanna go sailin' & be done with the launch season. It will be great to wrap up this chapter.

I forgot to mention, not included in the $950 is the paint job for the new spreaders, which is part of the 16 hours of labor (from memory 16 hrs) quoted to complete the Hall job.

The kit from Annap Rigg'g sounds better all the time, doesn't it?