One Good Answer

[Don Guillette]

A Florida shipmate called me today regarding a situation that happened to a dockmate friend. The friend lost his mast last Sunday. He asked me how I'd have handled the situation and then went on to say that "he wanted one good answer that would fit all situations". I wish life was that easy but there is NO one good answer. It depends on the circumstance. I prepare for the worse and have a heavy duty wire cutter and a metal saw readily at hand and I'm going to cut that sucker (mast and sail) loose at the first sign that the mess will damage the hull.

His friend tried to salvage the sail and almost fell overboard in the process. The spreader made a mess of the side of the boat. I've only seen a dismasting once and that was at the Catalina 30 Nationals in Santa Cruz a number of years ago - those Santa Cruz sailors can sail in anything and 40 knots is a calm day to them!! They salvaged the mast and the sail and for their effort the insurance company nickled and dimed them to death.

The Florida sailor kept pressuring me for "one good answer" so I told him to cut it loose and for the insurance company, only have a vague idea of where it sunk.

Obviously there are other answers -- so what would you do if your mast failed? How many out there have had a mast fail and how did you handle the situation?

How many of you are prepared for a mast failure? I'll bet not many. If you're not prepared, think about it for a moment and make believe your in this mess and what would you do -- short of messing your pants!!

 

[Stu Jackson]

For a mast to fail, it "usually" but not always, is part of the standing rigging that fails first. I simply cannot recall a mast section crumbling on its own (although I'd bet there are some "cutting edge" racing machines in the Southern Ocean where this has happened; I'm only talking here about our recreational boats where the masts are more like telephone poles).

A regular check of the standing rigging is always a good place to start. This includes both ends of the rigging, up and at the deck.

As Don said, a good pair of cutters makes all the difference.

In some cases, it depends on what breaks. I had a dock mate who had his forestay fail. Lucky enough he was sailing on a beam reach at the time. He headed DDW immediately and saved both his sails and his rig.

Like airplane pilots, who are always (or should be) thinking: "Where do I land if sh*t happens?", I'm always aware of what I call "our bailout plan." Backstay failure, forestay failure, upper or lower shrouds - what do I do immediately if one fails. Which way to turn the boat, what are the conditions (wind & wave), where's the nearest point of refuge (harbor, duck behind an island, head downwind, continue to head upwind...).

Doesn't make me paranoid at all.

I do the same sort of thinking about the engine: if it doesn't work, what do I do? I'm fortunate enough that I can, and have practiced, sailing into our slip, but I'm not gonna be macho to do that if I'm far enough away that sailing to a closer point would make more sense.

All this is a PREVENTIVE approach to total rig failure. If TOTAL mast failure occurred, I would cut it all away, right away. The mast and sails can be replaced, the boat can't (as easily).

 

[Cool Beans]

Hmmm. . .

Since I don't have full coverage, and the boat is basically worthless without a rig, I would attempt to salvage it before cutting it all away. There are a few sail boats dotting the different marinas around here without masts, and they aren't worth the slip fees being charged to keep them there :cry:

Given that I'm a fair weather sailor, any dismasting would probably happen during a fair-weather sail. Also since the mast is 40ft and deck stepped, and the average water depth is less than 30 ft around here, I'm assuming the top of the mast would rest on the bottom while the base would be held to the top of the cabin. . .I don't want to go into too much detail, but I would think it at least possible to pull in the sails and bring it along side and tie it off so I can motor in.

If it turned out to be impossible to salvage myself, I'd tie a buoy or two to the base before cutting it away in hopes it could be brought up later. Paying a commercial outfit to haul it up might be cheaper than trying to source a new spar, boom and sails.

And option 3 would be leaving the rig where it was and scrapping the hull. I would probably be better off $$$$$ wise selling off bits and pieces and the lead keel and buying another boat than sourcing an entire rig and sails. . .and not to mention time saved.

 

[Don Guillette]

Here's the bottom line ---- as long as you know what your getting yourself in for and have a pre-plan, no matter how imperfect it is, your prgbably going to be OK. It's the skippers who never have given any kind of an emergancy any thought who I feel sorry for.

I feel more sorry for their onboard guest. Picture this -- they are the skipper and something goes wrong and all eyes turn to them and they haven't got a clue what to do next!!