I would like to know if this has happened to any other 6.0 sailors? The particular failure that is of interest is the spreader bracket that is rivited to the mast. As can be seen in he photo attached, the tangs that are attached at the back of the mast are welded on the sailtrack side of the web. they are at an angle due to the shape of the mast, this creates a moment arm that combined with the force on the rear strut caused the sail track to collapse. this has the result of increased spreader sweep. increased sweep results in more force on the rear strut, and you get the rest.

The first time this happened the failure did not go catastrophic (sp) the sail track collapsed and I had trouble getting the sail down. I bent the mast back into shape and had an improved bracket made. never had any problem after that. The improved bracket is shown in the second attachment. The tangs were moved forward about 1cm to get them on the correct side of the web and the shape was changed to spread the bending load. Jack Young was made aware of the problem and these two solutions were given at the 2001 nationals. Jack's reply was that "it never happens"

Well, recently I had to replace my mast for other reasons. I took delivery of the mast at a regatta, and so was unable to install the modified bracket from the old mast. I was disapointed that I had to even think about changing a bracket on a brand new mast, but was ready to do so as soon as I had a chance. I was busy and forgot about the bracket and two weeks later was sailing in the Sail for Hope in Newport with 400lbs on the wire, lots of wind and the mast failed. It was very disappointing to know that a $15 part could have been changed and the failure most probably would not have happened. So what I would like to know is, Does this ever happen??