1989 Sunlight 30 spreader removal difficulty

[artyman]

Hi all,

My Sunlight 30 is now 22 years old and has been in my ownership for the last 10 years without the standing rigging being changed.
So, the mast is off in preparation for new standing rigging BUT THE PINS WHICH ATTACH THE SPREADER TO THE MAST BRACKET ARE SOLID!!
My rigger told me he had seen this design (Z Spars 301) previously and the (cast) mast bracket may break as one taps the pin.
Guess what? - yep, the bracket broke despite heat and lots of oil - photos attached show the damage.
Z Spars no longer keep spares for this mast and there must be quite a lot of us out there who will need to remove the spreader to change our standing rigging so maybe we can find a solution on this forum for everyone to share?
My rigger would like to sell me a new mast and its associated spreaders to the new design (surprise, surprise)

Anyone out there got a spare mast bracket for this Z Spars spreader.

Fingers crossed...

Bob Myers
Portland UK (2012 Olympic sailing venue)

[artyman]

I'm sending another 2 photos which better show the damage so far....

Bob

[artyman]

Here's the damaged casting from another angle

Bob

[MartyB]

I looked at US Spars website which is the US Zspar facility, Found a listing for a z301, but no Z301 in the parts description! They have the 351 and a 280 or there abouts number, but no 301, so it must not be in the system any more.

Marty

[flightdeck]

artyman, there's a business opportunity for you, take all your "bits" to an engineering shop, get them to measure it up and machine new ones from solid aluminium and hard anodize them, get 10 to 50 sets made and sell the rest on Ebay or to Jeanneau spare parts people.
Back sailing with old mast

Cheers