3-30 Spreaders

I am finally ready to re-step my mast, completing the Alan Storey beam replacement that I started in October. This was supposed to be a couple of weekends, but things quickly got out of hand. My question to the list regards the tangs that attach the spreaders to the mast. These are very substantial items that are welded to the mast. The aluminum plates holding the spruce spreaders slip between an upper and lower tang, and are held there by two large pins on each side. One both sides of my mast the upper tangs are tipped up so the the spreaders lie flat against them when properly installed, ie, bisecting the angle of the upper shrouds. The lower tangs on each side are perpendicular to the mast itself, causing the lower plates to lie against them with only the ends actually touching the tangs. Keeping in mind that the 3-30 uses the same mast section as the 40's, this may ll be a moot point, but here goes. Should I, a) ignore the whole thing, put up my refurbished spreaders and hope to get another 30 years out of them; b) attempt to bend the lower tangs, which are 1/4 or 5/16th stock and massively welded in place, using a BFH or some other tool, or c) do something else? I am inclined to think "a", based of the great strength and lack of flexibility of either the aluminum mast or the tangs. Hopefully someone with more analytical skills than I will be able to give me some guidance. This all started when I ordered one of Alan's excellent beams, and set out to follow his simple photgraphically illustrated directions. After dropping the mast, removing the headliner, and cutting out the port settee, I ran into my first challenge. When driving the compression post, under which the beam resides, off its pedestal, I cut all of the wires running through it and up the mast. No worries, I'd planned to replace the coax and wire a new masthead light anyway, and the steaming light was to be replaced with one with a foredeck light, Off I went to West Marine, where I purchased all the stuff I needed and proceeded, with the help of a coworker, to cut off the top of the pedestal and expose the beam. Now Alan had a set of blueprints, and had already made and replaced the beam in Chimera, his 3-30, so I knew I was going to be OK. Until, that is, that I found that my boat had been assembled without the shims at the ends of the beam which allow it to be installed and removed. We cut the end off the beam with a Sawzall, and with some encouragement from Alan, machined the end of his 316 stainless beam to fit into the boat. It worked, and we were able to fit the new beam and begin undoing our mess. Stringing the cables from the panel to midships, and the through a hole bored in the top of the beam was pretty straight forward. My coworker then reglassed the top of the pedestal, returning it to it's original height, and color matched the gelcoat to the original. From there we routed the wires up the compression post, and through the coachroof. We were able to raise the roof sufficiently to re-install the post by using a pair of car jacks and a couple 2 x 4's. Things were going swimmingly, and after painting all of the unfinished interior of the hull with gloss enamel, I reinstalled the settee and got ready to deal the the connections at the base of the mast. All of my new toys were in place, the combo steaming/deck light, a new masthead light, new VHF antenna, and windicator. This was really cool. Just to be on the safe side, I took a piece of coax and a connector to the local electronics shop for a refresher of soldering. The guy took one look at the coax and said, "You cant use this, it's the wrong stuff. It's for TV and it won't work with your VHF." After regaining control, I allowed as I didn't think it would be possible to do that without undoing all we had done. He said, "sure you can, just solder the new cable to the old and pul it through." I told him I thought it was impossible, and agreed to pay him his fee to do that and make the electrical connections, since apparently the coax joints are critical to decent reception, and the 8 20 ga. wires in one cable for the wind bird were beyond me. Three days later he called to say that all was done on the boat, but he had forgotten where at the yacht club i had told him the mast was stored, and had not completed that end of the three cables. That was in early December. What with the holidays and the Seattle boat show, I kind of laid off him, knowing that he was busy, but last week I swallowed hard, paid for his travel time and asked him to fix it by the weekend, please. He did, and yesterday I was ready with a couple of buddies to "git 'er done." Then came the gale force winds and torrential rains, and the mast stayed in the yard. Today has been bright sun and some damn football game, so of course my help has vanished. I have tomorrow off, and WILL put up that mast. Any advice before I just go and do it...? Thanx, Fred Haas 3-30 #127 Nemesis Tacoma