Strange thing on my mast spreader

[aaronwindward]

I need some help identifying a strange protrusion on the my mast spreader. It's a long, thin, plate, apparently aluminum. It's slightly curved in the short dimension, and bent out almost 90 degrees in the long dimension. It's affixed with two apparently stainless steel screws to the front of the spreader. It is only on the right spreader, not the left.

Check out these pictures:





Does anyone have any idea what this thing is?

The problem I'm having with it is that it seems to be slowly sawing through my spinnaker halyard, as you can see in the second picture. It's not at all clear to me what this thing is supposed to be doing, so I'm not totally sure how to solve my problem.

[sailingdog]

Yes--I am pretty sure that was originally bent into almost a U-shape. It was probably put there to catch halyards so that they wouldn't slap the mast when they were stowed. The easiest solution is to bend it back to where it was originally supposed to be...

[justified]

aaron
Just a guess here, but could it have been put on as a chafe protector for the spreader because of the wire halyard? It looks as though there is signs of wear on it and it is not in it's original position. why not just get rid of it? And make sure to replace that spin halyard.....that looks fugly.

[Faster]

If it was mounted the other way round, with the bend away from the mast you could hook your halyards onto it when stowed and you wouldn't have halyard slap. I think it's too tight to the spreader body at the one end to have been 'cleat' shaped to start with.

But if you store your halyards to a handy rail, or even a lifeline you could simply remove it.

[centaursailor]

Looks like its was originally there to keep the wire away from the rope halyard. The ware spot looks like the work of the rope running up and down the outside.
It was probably touching the mast when first fitted keeping the rope outside and the wire inside. I,d straighten and keep it.
Ps The halyard looks frayed as if its been catching on its open face so close it up of you keep it
Safe sailing

[Omatako]

So now you know exactly what to do . . . .

Hopefully you read the whole thread and didn't bend it out just moments before you saw the advice to bend it in.

[aaronwindward]

OK, what I'm getting from this thread is that it's probably meant to secure the spinnaker halyard when moored. I can't imagine it being intended to touch the jib or main halyards, which are wire. So I'll give it a try to see if there's any reason I should secure it this way, rather than my current setup.

(My current setup is to shackle the mainsail end of the main halyard aft, and use a hitch to pull the other length of the main halyard and the spinnaker halyard towards the bow. I have roller furling, so one end of the jib halyard is always secured, and the other end I pull away from the mast separately using a bungee.)

Honestly, I strongly suspect that I will not find this thing useful, and, in any case, it causes far more chafe than anything else attached to my mast. I'm also worried it could be tearing up my genoa when tacking. I did not notice the wear on the wire halyard until now, and that's also probably caused by this thing.

I think the only reason I'll keep this thing is if it works, and somehow makes securing the halyards more attractive than the rather ugly way I do it now...