Losing a Mast - Almost

A lesson in Mike's story, and a number I could tell, is that one does not immediately start dropping sails when one hears "Kapowww...!" or "Gesproinggg...". Take a few seconds to evaluate the situation. It may well be the sails that are holding the whole thing together. This leads to a story that the CAL 25ers here (and maybe some others) could be interested in. Cheers Charlie From: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com [mailto:Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of mtkennedy1 Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 1:49 PM To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Subject: [Cal_Boats] Re: Cal 2-27 Chain Plate Inspection --- In Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com, Chris Campbell <clcampbell@...> wrote: > > Bob Walden wrote: > > > > Hi Michael; > > > > snipped >>It doesn't take > > a lot to keep the mast vertical at the dock. You'll still have the > > fore & backstays and the other side shrouds. The halyards don't need > > to be tight, just not slack. > > > > > > >snipped The forestay burned through in the fireworks that followed, but > the spinnaker halyard, which was secured to a ring on the bow pulpit, > held the mast up just fine. > > That's my only standing rigging failure (knock on wood) and I hope > that I am less stupid in my older years. We did learn the value of > the spinnaker halyard. It served as our forestay all the way back to > home port, a trip of about 25 miles on a (fortunately) calm day. We > powered, but in retrospect the wire in the luff of the jib or genoa > would have held the mast up adequately had we chosen to sail. I lost a headstay in a race when the pin holding it in the masthead pulled out. That was my Ericson 29. The luff wire in the genoa held the mast up even though it was blowing about 15 and we were on a beat. Once we realized what had happened, we reached off and ran the spinn halyard to the bow to help keep the mast up. We pulled the mast down at the club hoist and a friend, Bill Fodor who was the Yankee Yachts guy I mentioned before, made two aluminum plates to reenforce the masthead. We replaced the pin, set up the head stay and raced the boat around San Clemente Island the following weekend. The Ericson masthead was welded aluminum and only 1/4 thickness stock. The pin had worked through the plate after elongating the hole gradually. We took the two new plates, also aluminum and thicker, about 5/16 I think, and bolted them to the existing fitting. Never did weld it. Just held with bolts (that held the sheaves) and the head and back stay pins. I sold the boat a couple of years later. I wonder if the owner ever wondered about our dry storage yard repair. It was stronger than the Ericson job. Mike Kennedy Conquest Cal 40 # 96 > > Chris Campbell > > Chris Campbell > Yahoo! Groups Links

Husar Charlie wrote: > > This leads > to a story that the CAL 25ers here (and maybe some others) could be > interested in. > I don't have a 25 but I am interested in any sailing story that has "Kapowww...!" or "Gesproinggg..." in it. Chris Campbell

Listees, I too have a story about almost loosing a mast. About two years ago, we were out sailing for the day. The previous owner was with us. As we neared the inlet, we attempted to furl the genoa. For one reason or another, the furling was giving us trouble, so using a winch we cranked the furling line thinking nothing about it. At the back of my mind, I assumed that there was an issue with the Harken Furler... Silly me! Two weeks later, my wife and I went out for the club's "Couples Race". We had maybe 5 kts of wind out of the NE as we motored out Hillsboro Inlet under bare poles and turned south. I decided to put out the genoa to catch some wind if possible. I released the furler line and pulled on the starboard sheet. As the genoa unfurled, the mast started pumping. Brenda noticed something too. I went forward to investigate and found that the forestay had snapped at the masthead. I told Brenda to hold her course as I attempted to get the genoa furled. It was ugly, but I was able to get it in and apply a bit more tension to the genoa halyard. I took the wheel and came about heading for the inlet with the backstay whacking the back of my head. I radioed the bridge tender, informed him/her of the situation and requested an immediate lift. I sent Brenda below for the life jackets. That's when she got scared... (My thinking was if the rig came down and one or both of us fell overboard, then the other would not likely be able to do much about it.) The bridge tender responded immediately to our call, and we motored through wearing the life jackets. When we arrived at our dock, I took the spinnaker halyard forward and secured it at the bow, then ran the main halyard forward as well (just for fun). With the mast "safe", we departed the dock once again, motored down the ICW, and met up with the other racers at the end of the day to socialize. The next weekend, I had a rigger come to the dock to look at the mess. It appears that furler had seized on the forestay... When we forced the furler weeks earlier with the winch, we had twisted the forestay enough to snap most of the wires in the cable. $500 or so in parts and labor, and we were back on the water. That was an expensive lesson. Michael Duvall s/v Magic, Cal 2-27 Pompano Beach, FL --------------------------------- Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min.