Would you be ready to handle this emergency?

[sail sfbay]

Reminded me of a Hunter 42 that was de-masted off the coast of Panama. Owner now has a back-up rope standing rig set-up all the time.

I wonder what was the root cause of the de-masting and possible mitigation steps like rig inspection, dropping the mainsail ............

 

[DeliriousSailor]

Just booked someone to inspect our rigging next week.

 

[Ward H]

In spring of 2018, when my mast was still down after being delivered to my marina by truck, I had my rigging inspected. The rigger found two swage fittings showing evidence of cracks. Also found a crack in the mast head casting. I had pulled the chain plates and he inspected them also. All new rigging and mast head but the chain chain plates were deemed find.
Glad I went through the expense back then. Gives me peace of mind when looking at that video.

 

[shemandr]

The vid was definitely highly edited - not that's a bad thing. But the time line is broken up.
I wouldn't kill them on the radio. Of course it wasn't going to work with the mast head being in the water and all. But with the stress involved any of us might overlook that. I don't think they had access to it until the skipper was diving on the mast and I doubt that was his priority.
The problem I see there is that while the mast folded it didn't break. Things would have been easier if it broke. I think containing it was the best option. If you climbed it (And I think there were steps) you might be able to cut it with a hack saw, but what would happen next? That sequelae might be more dangerous. They were only 30 miles from their destination so while it was probably scary they weren't in that much danger. It's better to not make a bigger mistake. I do cringe at starting the engine with all that gear in the water but I think timeline may have not been that way in real time.

 

[NotCook]

When you know the antenna is down, perhaps you can rig a replacement using the existing hardware from the top of the mast.

Before we did our first offshore passage (12 days Portsmouth to Tortola), we bought an emergency antenna kit as a backup, but your post is worth noting. Thanks!

 

[NotCook]

I've been on two boats on which the mast came down. In each incident

Stay off our boat!