Additional information

Spreaders – A 27 spreader slides into a round receptacle, part of a mast fitting that also secures the lower shrouds. Between the spreader itself and the mast fitting is a piece of rubber hose that provides some elasticity in the mounting. With age, this hose will deteriorate to the point where it no longer provides support to the spreader (the spreader should not move more than an inch or so fore and aft or rig tension will be inconsistent from tack to tack; extreme sloppiness could conceivably damage the spreader). You must remove the spreader and replace the hose as Ken Pole did, or find some slightly elastic material to fill the gap, as in the photo Spreader Base above.

"After an extensive search, I found suitable heater hose for the inboard end of my Mark III's spreaders at a truck supply shop. It has an outside diameter of about 1-5/8" and a wall thickness of about 3/16". My spreaders are 1" aluminum pipe which has an O.D. of 1-5/16" so the hose is a snug fit. It costs $2 an inch up here and you'll need no more than 5" to do both sides." – Ken Pole, Santiva

LED's – " I ordered the LEDS from Ledtronics. They have a massive selection which can make things confusing. My diodes, part Number LF200-OCN-22, are new in the industry and try to emulate an incandescent bulb. They are also the most expensive, but do put out nice cool white light. I run the power through a 1000 ohm switch/pot that is supposed to be linear, but isn't really. It still allows me to dim the light.
"The resistors were about 3 bucks for two hundred, the circuit board about 60, the switches about 6. The diodes are 90 cents apiece but there is a duty on electronics. My guess is that each array cost me about C$120. Sounds like a lot, but I could not find anything that came close to putting out the same amount of light, fit where I wanted it, and costs less than twice what I paid. It was also a personal challenge, and of course there is the cool factor." – Michael Suitor

Rudder post – The action of steering causes the bolt hole at the top of the rudder post to elongate; the same wear may be found on the tiller bolt holes, particularly if the bolt is not kept tight. There are two possible long-term solutions. The simplest, used on Aragorn, is to install an M8 metric bolt, which is a hair larger than the original Imperial/SAE size bolt. The other, used on Kat's Paw I, is to weld a length of tubing with the inside diameter equal to the bolt diameter in the place of the bolt hole. You will need to take the rudder to a machinist for this. Take the tiller at the same time and ask him to install bushings to take out any slop in its holes.