Today I was walking through the boat yard in Calgary and saw a rather disturbing sight. I've seen a lot of laughable things on the Calgary sailing scene (last year I saw a guy use bungee cords to tie his boat to the dock and left it unattended with the sails up!!) But what I saw earlier today though could have been a complete disaster. I saw a Sandpiper on its trailer with its mast on little building behind it.
As you may have seen on the weather network, Calgary was hit with a freak storm the other night (Thunder, lightning and 15cm snow all at the same time) Apparently the high wind managed to vibrate the mast from the turnbuckle on the forestay. I inspected the rig and didn't observe any breaks or stripping of threads. I can only surmise that the lower end of the threaded turnbuckle was not inserted far enough into the sleeve to give the forestay any strength. It was a disaster waiting to happen.
This has reminded me to check all turnbuckles before heading out and thought I should share this with you. Quite often we overlook the obvious and we pay dearly for it in the end. Fortunately at the time of the accident the boat was on it's trailer and was away from overhead wires. If this happened on the water, I shudder to think of what could have happened.
The same storm also blew a CL16 from its trailer resulting in tangled masts with a neighboring boat. A few years ago someone's boat blew off its trailer and missed my mast by 2 feet. I don't think that guy will ever no how lucky he was not to hit me. When it comes to my boat I,m like a mamma bear.

Robert
Celtic Kiss #2120

posted May 28, 2002 09:37 AM            

I've been involved in several dismastings over the years. They're always terrifying. A few points of sober second thought so that maybe we'll all be very careful with our rigging:

Make sure your mast is tuned properly. Back in the 70's it was common to sail Sharks with fairly loose rigging. This let you put a lot of bend in the mast (like Finns & Lasers do) so you could power upwind very efficiently. It also meant the mast could be under too much compresion and could break under the pressure in heavey weather. We had our mast break in a squall while racing. Nobody was hit but the mast under the boat still attached with the rigging would pull the hull right over to the point of taking on water (very high seas that day). The mast was also pounding a hole in the hull. since then I've always carried bolt cutters so that you can quickley cut the rigging away if need be. (I know it's extra weight while racing but you need them.)

In another dismasting, (a larger keel boat) when the mast went no one was actually hit by the mast but the snapping rigging cracked around the deck like a whip! One of our friends was grazed by a flying stay in the side of the head. Head cuts bleed a lot and the scene was horrific. I've never seen so much blood; over the deck, sails, everywhere. Our friend was OK but we were really scared for a while.

So, in closing, check and double check. Make sure your'e mast is tuned correctly, and all tiurnbuckles are taped or wired. Re-check often; it's amazing how sail handling can undo a turnbuckle. There's a fine line between having a good time and a miserable experience.

Do you know of any good sources for
tuning rigging? especially in mid size keelboats such as the Mirage 33.

posted May 29, 2002 01:40 PM            

"ShortWave" is now sitting happily at her mooring and we're looking forward to cruising the west end of lake Ontario and a trip to Kingston is also in the works.

posted June 04, 2002 01:41 PM            

There wasn't any spacer at all under the jibsheet track. I wonder if my '74 Sandpiper has different hardware than more modern hulls. BTW, the books I have read never recommend sealing around deck fasteners inside of the hull. It traps water that manages to get through. Better you should have a drip warning inside and realize that there is a bedding failure than retain the water inside the drilled hole. Mind you, it's not such a big problem with these solid non-cored decks as it would be on a bigger boat with coring.