Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
Al has the right idea. The "spring clip" is simply stainless steel wire available at most any hardware store. It's purpose is to hold the upper shroud in the end of the spreader while the mast is being raised. As Al said, it needs to have some play to allow the shroud to easily slide as the tension increases. I don't think you should have this very tight at all... unless you have all the slack out of the shroud from the masthead to the spreader, you'll be asking for the spreader to be pulled down as you tighten the shroud.
I redid the spreaders last spring and covered the tips with the leather spreader boots from CD. Looks great!
Also, while the mast is down, you might want to check the masthead sheaves. When I got my boat, she still had the original wire halyards and sheaves. I went to all rope halyards and changed the sheaves to match.
And while I'm thinking about it, now would be a great time to add a mast halyard plate to run lines aft (if they're not already there.)
Thanks all for the tips. Still not quite sure how to wind the spring clips....I'll figure it out.
Now the Next question: What is the compression tube for the spreader brackets that shows on Cat Directs kit? From what I can tell, it goes inside the mast and prevents the tightening of the spreader bolts from collapsing the mast. Do I have one in there already? If I do not, how the heck does one get one inside the mast? Am I missing some concept here?
I'll swear I'm getting stupid or something in my old age....
Yes you do have a compression tube in the mast already. It is a major pain to replace, you would have to slide it inside the mast using a pipe, or something similar, and a lot of patience, it seems it is prety crowded in there!
Getting the compression tube in place is a pain, but it's relatively straight forward. I helped one of the guys from here get his done with the upgrade from CD last year. Took us less than half a day to do so including pulling wires through the mast.
What you keep referring to as a spring is not a spring at all. It is what Catalina refers to as seizing wire or more commonly known as safety wire. Its sole purpose is to keep the shroud from popping out of the slot in the spreader plug when the shroud is loose on the non-working side. If it were to come out and you didn't notice it, as soon as you tacked,well.... Crack ..Kaboom.
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.