As a follow up to one of the previous post - "What did you break this weekend?" Went sailing today. 15-18 knots of wind. The inside small diamond wire decided to fail while we were cruising at about 16 knots. Results attached.

Two weeks before The 'Round the Island Race too. We'll still be there! Hope you are too.

More photos at

http://community.webshots.com/scripts/editPhotos.fcgi?action=viewall&albumID=90241185

In our Fleet, ARC-22 #2225 just had a similar failure, except it does not appear that any wires failed first, the mast just broke above the hounds.

Don-

When were your boats put in service??? Can it be an age/use scenario??? Or have you been using tha big 742sqft spin???

I'm sailing today but racing locally on the 26th or I would get you to sail with me...if you were available???

I'm looking forward to getting my new furling asm tomorrow from GMSAils and trying it out. Crew requirements are now based on total crew weight to weather conditions {;<)===

Also I can't get into your link because I'm not a regristered user for that site.

Good luck,

thom
ARC22 #2234

Thom,

The boat was originally put in service in 1999, but only sailed a few times, then stored in a warehouse for two years. After we bought it last September, it was completely overhauled and rebuilt this past winter. Tom Haberman came down and tuned it for us, so I know it was right. The boat is basically a 2003 model now. While we were sailing, I definitely heard a pop or more like a small gun going off right before we lost everything. The small diamond wire pulled out at the tang. Everything else was in tact.

Thanks for the offer to sail. It looks like we'll have another mast in two weeeks one way or another. We have a couple of things going on that.

Try this link and see if you can get to the other pics.

http://community.webshots.com/album/90241185SBjeYZ

That history sounds similar to mine. My boat was sailed once the first year [5/2001] due to a knee injury the first day out. Now after three surgeries and 2 1/2 years later its finally gettin used.

I am always looking for preventative measures.

Once sailing my Tornado [US498] I heard some tapping that sounded like it was coming out of the hulls. I went over both hulls and found nothing. It turned out that the starboard shroud was breaking one strand of wire at a time at the very top. I raised the mast that morning and had looked at the shrouds for wear. None visible! The mast fell and sliced my crews ear real deep. Almost took it off...

fair winds,

thom

I'm not doubting whether or not the secondary diamond wire failure caused the mast problem - but I can't figure out why it appears to have bent TOWARD the broken diamond wire.

Jake,

The mast hound where the shrouds are attached is above the diamond attachment. When the diamond wire went, the middle of the mast was pushed out from the force on the sail, while the stays held. Simple bending moment. As the mast fell, top coming down and back and clearing the deck, taking us out with the shroud.