The previous owner of my 5.0 put a stainless steel plate between the upper nut of the dolphin striker rod and the beam, basically a much bigger washer, to better spread the pressure (the plate is square and curved like the beam). The reason why he did that is because the beam was slightly compressed, because he didn´t apply correct tension to the V-bar. The tube that goes inside the beam is not there and I don´t think I could put another one, because ot the beam deformation. Anyway, it has worked fine for me, I just make sure that there is enough tension on the V-Bar. But one day I sailed over a buoy that had a carabiner that hooked right on the V-bar, making the boat stop instantly and bending the rod and loosing the cast iron piece that supports it to the v-bar. I even sailed for a while after that, because I didn´t realised what happened, I wasn´t going really fast as I was just leaving the shore, and a swimer helped me unhook it, so I didn´t see the v-bar at that time.

After that, I notice that the rod had some play against the beam, the perforations of the beam were probably deformed. My plan is to rivet the square stainless steel plate to the beam to make the connection tight again. Probably I should get a new beam, I know, but I will try that first. It might be a good idea as reinforcement, even for a new system, to avoid failures like what nacra5.8 is showing.

Nacra5.8, I am very curious of how that happened, the mast obviously went down, do you think you or your crew were close to get hit or get caught by a shroud or something like that?