We was out sailing on our Tornado in 6-8 m/s yesterday, with gusts up to 10-12 m/s

We went on starboard tack quite a distance after launching, before we tacked to port. 2 seconds after tacking, while powering up we heard a 'pomm' and the mast slowly fell over to starboard. We where both on the trapeze when the mast fell, weighting about 200 Kg with equipment and wet clothes.

After getting the sails down and secured, the harbourmaster gave us a tow back to the club. Not a lot broken, we will probably be back on the water by friday. But...

After inspecting the rigging and the hulls, it seems like the bolt holding port sidestays broke. We always tape the splints for the bolts, and the tape was there when we tightened the rigging. I have heard of broken sidestays and other rigging, but broken rig bolts ??

We assembled the boat in the end of june, and would have detected any bends or obvious cracks in the bolts then..

The good thing about this story. We got some media coverage in the lokal paper ( http://www.r-b.no/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?AID=/20030827/LOKALNYTT/103082704 ) and we finished with this years major breakage before the international German championship.

We also got to practice our emergency chinese fire drills