Interesting thread. I have been dismasted racing my Sabre 28. Night race on Lake Erie. Thunderstorms in the distance. Crew saw lights on shore (7 miles away )disappear and put on their foul weather gear. Unfortunately it was a microburst approaching us with winds of 60-70 knots which we couldn't see. What we thought was rain was actually the microburst downdraft . 4 crew on rail and 2 of us in the cockpit. Burst hit us with a full main and number 2 up. The boat heeled about 40 degrees as we scrambled to release the sheets. Within minutes there was a loud bang as the rig broke at the spreaders and 6 feet above the deck. It hit with such force that both sails went overboard with the rig. The rigid boom vang twisted and the boom hung up on the top of the life lines. The aluminum foil on the the roller furler bent into a number of crazy angles. When the rig blew, the boat went from 40 degrees heel to negative heel dipping the rail crew's legs into the water and then immediately popped up lifting the crew off the deck about a foot before leveling out. A testament to the Sabre's excellent righting moment. Immediately the broken mast started banging loudly on the side of the hull. The boat goes beam to the wind and waves as the sea state goes to 4 foot steep and confused chop. Yikes! Fortunately I had great crew who did not panic. We had a paramedic, doctor, deputy sheriff, controller, me, and a Methodist minister just in case anything really went wrong.
Anybody who thinks bolt cutters or hacksaw will work in these conditions is overly optimistic. The violent action of the boat in a seaway at night is difficult as the boat rolls and pitches both. We got lucky in that I recently installed wrap pins on all the turnbuckles. We released all the turnbuckles which were under load as the sails were under water and pulling on the shrouds. We cut the halyards but not without difficulty. Dyneema and Vectran core lines can only be cut with a sharp serrated knife or ceramic knife. Our paramedic had a very sharp serrated knife which worked great, Getting rid of the headstay was another matter. Cutting through the aluminum foil and stainless wire stay inside is extremely difficult as it is whipping around in the waves. We accomplished this by undoing the double locknuts on the headstay pin. My wife had to lay down on the bow while another crew wedged into the pulpit to hold a wrench while my wife used pliers to unscrew the the nuts. Amazing action by my wife as she got dunked twice as the boat pitched. The backstay came apart easily as the adjuster unscrewed. The Garhauer vang was still attached to the stub of the mast and the boom. Both were a mangled mess. We unscrewed the bolts that held the deck stepped mast to the step and jettisoned the stub, boom, and vang overboard which allowed the trashed rig and sails to sink to the bottom. The moment of truth was when I started the engine. As luck would have it, the rig and mess was on the port side where the offset prop was. I waited for a few minutes and then dropped into gear fearing a loud squeal. Fortunately we were clear and motored 3 miles into a safe harbor.
In hindsight, I wished I had a 20V cordless grinder with diamond blade. Absent that, the wrap pins were a godsend. The biggest thing is to have a crew that doesn't panic and who are good at problem solving. If you lose you rig at night and in a rough sea state, hacksaws and bolt cutters wouldn't work well. Felco wire cutters would work also.
