Rigging Failure

[Don Guillette]

Chances are that a rigging failure will not happen to you and you won't need to know the steps you must take IMMEDIATELY AND WITHOUT EVEN THINKING ABOUT IT to prevent further damage. If your rigging is over 10 years old and is kept in salt water it might be a good idea to pay attention to this thread. You also might want to have a rigger check it out to be sure. In my case, I saw some deterioation at deck level but was not prepared for what the rigger found at the top of the mast. I ended up replacing everything.OK so here is the situation. Your sailing along close hauled in about 10 to 12 knots of wind. If you can't answer the following questions in under 5 seconds consider yourself very lucky that you have not had a problem. If something goes wrong with the rigging you have zero time to think about a solution - you have to react instantly.#1 Your on starboard tack and the starboard shroud breaks. What do you do?#2 Your on starboard tack and the port shroud breaks. What do you do?#3 Your closehauled and the forestay breaks. What do you do? What do you do with the jib?#4 Your sailing downwind and the backstay breaks? What do you do?The solutions are very simple and it does not matter what your level of seamanship is - you should have the solution in the back of your head so you can react instead of scratching your head.

 

[Bill O'D]

Heave to!

1. Hold course and let it crash out of harm's way. Then round-up and collect.2. Hold course, slow down, try to jury rig repair to shroud. Come up slowly.3. Never mind the jib, steer off to let the main crash either side. 4. Hold course and watch everything fall forward, no harm to humans. Round up.

 

[Don Guillette]

Let It Crash

Bill O'D: Well, I guess those suggestions would work but it wasn't what I had in mind. I prefer to keep the mast up - if at all possible. I've only seen 2 dismastings. One was at a Catalina30 National race in Santa Cruz, Ca with winds in excess of 40 knots. Fortunately, there was an experienced race crew on board and damage was minimal. The reason being these guys knew what they are doing. The second was in Long Beach, Ca and it happened to be one of my dock neighbors, who was not so experienced. It happened on a relatively calm day with just him and his wife on board. When the mast came down, unfortunately, one of the spreader entered the hull. Luckily it was just above the water line. He was towed back to the dock with rigging, sails and lines hanging all over the place. What a mess. He later told me he was so scared he almost pooped his pants!! As you'll see shortly there are easy ways to react to these situations and keep the mast up - the only thing is a mate has to be very quick on the reaction time. Time is the killer.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Try this

#1 Your on starboard tack and the starboard shroud breaks. What do you do?Tack to port.#2 Your on starboard tack and the port shroud breaks. What do you do?Keep sailing, determine repairs#3 Your closehauled and the forestay breaks. What do you do? What do you do with the jib?Head downwind asap#4 Your sailing downwind and the backstay breaks? What do you do?Head up into the wind

 

[Mike]

My thoughts

1. Come about and use the spare halyard to help hold up the mast and take up the strain, drop sails and assess the situation further.2. Hold my course, use the spare halyad to help hold up the mast and take up the strain, drop sails and assess the situation further.3. turn down wind, and if your jib is not on a CDI furler like mine is, I'd leave the jib up, since the luff will help support the halyard. However, my CDI furler has an internal halyard, and my furler just fell, or is hanging depending upon which end of the forestay broke. ( they don't break in the middle. I'd use the spare halyad to help hold up the mast and take up the strain, drop sails and assess the situation further.4. Immediately turn up into the wind, pull the main sheet in as tight as I can, and leave the main up. I'd then get my spare halyard and do what i did for the the other 3 situations. Then drop the sils and assess the situation.

 

[Mulf]

IMMEDIATELY AND WITHOUT EVEN THINKING?

IF i reacted immediately without thinking:1 - tack over to a port tack, hoping to find time to convert spare haylard to a starboard shroud,2 - hold course, hoping to find time to convert spare haylard to a port shroud,3 - turn ddw, hoping to find time to convert spinnaker haylard to a forestay4 - turn to upwind, hoping to find time to convert spare haylard to a backstayOf course, instead of doing that immediately without thinking I scream OH S@#$ and freeze til the rig comes down.

 

[CalebD]

I agree with trying to keep the mast up.

So getting the load off, or keeping it off the broken stay/shroud is the first line of defense while trying to get a spare halyard to replace the wire. As a second line of defense I now keep a 24" bolt cutter in a lazarette compartment in the cockpit in case any of the rigging needs to be cut away quickly to avoid bodily damage to me or the boat. Our aft stay chainplate pulled up once about 1/4" with a shudder and thunk while on a port tack in winds near 20kts. I immediately wanted to reduce the load on that stay and headed into the wind while furling in the genny. With the motor started we went back to our mooring. We lost about a month of sailing as the incident did not leave us with a warm and comfortable feeling until we repaired the chain plate bulkhead. There was glassed in wood which had turned to soil and it was only the fiberglass holding the chain plate in place. What if the mast breaks halfway or above???I've got my bolt cutters.

 

[Benny]

I like Bill O'Ds answers. The short of it is

that your insurance policy will cover dismasting as an accidental ocurrence. You always try to save your rig specially if you need it to get back to civilization but do not expose yourself to getting hurt as a falling mast can kill you.

 

[jk kudera]

If the forestay breaks

I can assure you, the rig will come down, it happened to us on labor day. We had six persons aboard, no one paniked,it took all of 20 minutes to call for help, untie all the stopper knots, remove all the cotter pins, and allow the mast to separate from the boat. A salvage company retrieved the mast two days later when weather improved. Cost to repair? in excess of $ 16,000.

 

[T37 Phil]

Not necessarily

We had a forestay break while unfurling the jib. The furler foil and jib halyard kept the mast upright. The main was full at the time and didn't bring the rig down. Last year we also had a starboard upper come loose (sheet snagged pin?) while on a starboard tack. The lowers held the mast upright, though the top seemed to bend like a wet noodle. Rather than tacking (in retrospect a very good idea) we came into the wind and dropped sails while starting the motor.

 

[jimq26]

If forestay broke, your jib should hold the mast.

(nm)

 

[Don Guillette]

Saving The Rig

This is slightly off the topic (we are seeking ways to keep the mast up) but if the mast does come down I have my personal thought as to what I intend to do with it. I carry an industrial rated wire cutter that will cut through anything. Most times I am single handing the boat with my wife on board. Depending on the wind, sea conditions, closeness of help and other things my first reaction is to get the debris away from the boat and I would plan on cutting it all loose and that incldes everything - mast, sails, lines and rigging. It is all going to the deep 6.In most of the dismating discussions I've had with sailors around the world they have told me that the insurance companies (I have over 45 years of personal lines and marine insurance background) will nickel and dime on the claim so that is my second reason for getting rid of the debris but my first reason is the most important one because the dismasting is bad enough and I don't want the debris to cause more damage. Additionally, I don't think I'll exactly remember the exact position where the dismasting took place either!!Other listers may have a different thought but as I said the above is mine.

 

[Don Guillette]

Rigging Failure Solutions

As usual, Stu Jackson had the correct solutions.With all of these solutions the idea is to stabilize the situation VERY QUICKLY and GET THE SAILS DOWN because the corrective action is only temporary.On starboard tack and the starboard shroud breaks, which is under load, you have to tack and you don't have lot of time to fool around.If the other shroud breaks you just keep sailing but you have to to quick about it to get the main and jib dowm. Don't be concerned about neatness - just uncleat the main halyard and let the whole thing drop on the deck.If your closehauled and the forestay breaks you want to head downwind. DO NOT TOUCH the jib as that is the only thing holding up the mast.Your heading downwind and the backstay breaks. This is the worst possible situation to be in as the chances are very good that the mast is coming down. The solution is to turn upwind but I don't think you'll have time to make it. If your lucky and have a topping lift it would come in very handy in this situation.In all of these situation second really matter. You don't have time to mull over the situation - you have to react instantly. Tuck this thread into the back of your mind but hopefully you'll never need to use it.