The picture shows that the sail track has a joint located at the middle of the reinforcement plates. In case there is a joint in the track also where the other two plates are, these plates are compensation for the breaks in the sail track, and their purpose is to increase the longitudinal stiffness of the mast.

This hull number is the last of the 41:s having a slightly smaller mast section, one or two of these masts failed when the spinnaker pole was under high compression load near the headstay, and the inboard end pushed the mast aft with great force.

It would be better to avoid this situation, or install inner forestay and runners. After the failure these items were sent out to the owners wanting them. This was in the 1970:s, I do not think this offer is valid any more.

Another possibility is to make the spinnaker pole weaker, it would be preferable to break the pole and not the mast in an overload situation.

Lars