First, I agree - it sucks that the two week old mast failed and if a similar situation was presented to me at work, I would certainly pony up a discount on a replacement. However, a warranty covers defective parts or designs. They do not cover using an item for other than what it was intended or for any failures relative to the user modifying that design or using it outside of the specifications.

In your buddy's Mustang Cobra incident (that sucks too!) he would have to find a way to prove that something in the engine was defective since Ford has already determined that it was something outside of their control. From Ford's perspective, perhaps they suspect that he constantly ran the engine 2000 rpm over red line - they do have data logs in the ECM to record such things. If that were the case do you still expect them to warranty the engine? We know nothing about that situation but I'm trying to show that as owners we have a certain responsibility to use our equipment as it were intended. It's so typically American to not want that responsibility after something breaks. I do agree with you that the Cobra is a car that should be driven hard – but it can be driven TOO hard. It certainly would be nice if Ford were a bit more detailed in their explanation (maybe we only got half of the story too).

Even ignoring that a spinnaker was rigged, I think it's pretty clear that the mast in question was not defective - the question on the table is whether or not the design of the spreader bracket is adequate. There are a LOT of Nacra 6.0s out there and I'm sure Performance would have enough data to determine if it's a design problem. While I don't have any raw data supporting it, I've never heard of this kind of failure unless it was associated with having less than the specified amount of spreader rake - which this case clearly had. Again, I think a discount on a replacement would be the right thing to do simply because the whole situation sucks...especially for CrackX. But I don't think anyone can show that the Performance Catamaran supplied parts were defective or the designs faulty.