The forestay on my 36 failed while I was sailing last week.
I was on a beam reach with about 12 knots of wind and relatively calm waters.
The jib furler came off the bow and started to bang on the side of the boat.
I put on the engine and furled up the main sail so that I can deal with the loose jib.
That was the life saver.
I now realised that the mast was supported by the wind at the time. Pulling the main back into line with the boat means it was over the traveller on the main arch and furling the main leave the boom sitting on the traveller. The boom vang was stretched, maintaining the boom at close to right angle with the mast and therefore prevent the mast from falling backwards even without the forestay.
Managed to power back to home berth and rigger is now working on checking the rigging.
This is a major advantage of Hunters to having the arch over the cockpit.
Without the arch, the boom and mast would have fallen backwards, likely landing on me and wreck the bimini, dodger, and whatever is in its way.
As it is, there is relatively minor damage to the mast, radar, etc.
The clevis pin for the forestay was missing from the toggle that was holding it to the bow. I am assuming that the cotta pin or whatever is keeping the clevis pin in place came off.
I will be checking my forestay from time to time from now on!
I was on a beam reach with about 12 knots of wind and relatively calm waters.
The jib furler came off the bow and started to bang on the side of the boat.
I put on the engine and furled up the main sail so that I can deal with the loose jib.
That was the life saver.
I now realised that the mast was supported by the wind at the time. Pulling the main back into line with the boat means it was over the traveller on the main arch and furling the main leave the boom sitting on the traveller. The boom vang was stretched, maintaining the boom at close to right angle with the mast and therefore prevent the mast from falling backwards even without the forestay.
Managed to power back to home berth and rigger is now working on checking the rigging.
This is a major advantage of Hunters to having the arch over the cockpit.
Without the arch, the boom and mast would have fallen backwards, likely landing on me and wreck the bimini, dodger, and whatever is in its way.
As it is, there is relatively minor damage to the mast, radar, etc.
The clevis pin for the forestay was missing from the toggle that was holding it to the bow. I am assuming that the cotta pin or whatever is keeping the clevis pin in place came off.
I will be checking my forestay from time to time from now on!