I just replaced all the standing rigging cables. It was at least 5 years old. Then the bow shackle that connects the bridle to the stay broke. The picture shows and INTERNAL void that has been corroding for some time. Replace all the hardware every few years.

So here's my question: When a person experiences this kind of rig failure, how often does it result in severe injury to those on the boat? If a forestay shackle breaks, does the mast fall pretty much staight backward? What happens to anyone on the tramp in that area? It seems to me like it would have a tremendous amount of force considering the weight of the mast plus the force of the wind in the sails. I sail with my children often, and they're all over the tramp...

I did replace the shrouds after purchasing my boat this winter, but I think I'll replace the forestay shackle as well.

Kevin
Prindle 18
Largo, FL

Cant say for certain what hapens when the forestay breaks but I has a side stay pull the chainplate out of the hull when sailing with my kids. The sail acted like a break and the mast slowly settled into the water away from us and the boat came to a slow stop.
I would think that the sail would stop the mast from coming down too fast in any direction.

It's actually a pretty mild experience. I had a stay snap on my H-20 on a very wild and windy day. One minute we're screaming along with water blasting us when "boing," and the mast, slowly drifts into the water and boat drifts to a halt. Surprisingly, it's the least dangerous rig failure. There's no capsizing, nothing flies around and there's no loss of control. The boat simply stops.

About 15 years ago, the bow tang on my 16 broke when my wife and I were double trapping upwind.

After the intial "What the f--- happened?" (and the rude tea-bagging we took), the rig slowly pulled down on top of us. The sail just floats down. You don't want to be anywhere near the mast when it comes down, because it'll have a lot of weight behind it and it'll conk you good if you get in the way. However, it comes down so slowly that getting out of the way is usually not a problem.

I had a forestay let go in light air. It was like a tree falling. I had time to say to myself "This isn't happening" many times before it hit the water.

Of the three rig failures I know of, two were mild, one was not.
I got to watch our commodore's 5.5 rig come down after a shroud failed - he was going downwind with his screacher out. The whole rig gently sailed itself into the water, sails drawing nicely the whole way down. I think we were all mesmerized by how gently and peacefully it went down.
I broke a shroud pin on my Hobie-18, and the rig came down gently enough to be able to keep clear of it, and that was in medium+ conditions. The biggest issue was the work entailed in clearing the rig and stowing the mast and sails so as to not do any damage and start the paddle home. Effort made a little tougher by the spinnaker rig. Times like that are when appreciate a good knife and some basic tools.
The not so gentle one I know of I didn't see - one of our Fleet members was crewing on an older Tornado doing some blast reaching in strong winds. He was on the wire, and when the windward shroud let go the rig went fast, and the trapeze wire flung him (trebuchet-like). Good set of bumps and bruises, fortunately nothing more than that.

I had a forestay break on my Taipan while sailing upwind in around 25-30kts. We'd just sailed one lap of a triangle course, rounded the bottom mark, jumped out on the wire and BANG!
We were dunked and the mast fell straght backwards onto the rear beam and into the water. The only damage we suffered when it fell was to the gooseneck boom fitting that wasn't designed to bend upright next to the mast.

The biggest problem is getting everything untangled and packed away for the tow to shore without losing everything. The first thing I did after getting the shackle key out was promptly drop if overboard

We had no broken battens, torn sails, injured crew and only kinked the bridle while the mast was flailing around on deck and put a small bend in the tiller crossbar. A new forestay and bridle and we were back in business!

If your mast base can be pinned to the ball (Hobie 20), NEVER leave the long pin in. I did this once in a large regatta with a novice crew: A curl pin was pulled off by the beach wheels when launching, the shroud pin was lost, and the rig came down during our first tack in the middle of Lake Monroe. The crew did not move from the lee side despite my urging, as the mast slowly settled onto him, pinning him between the deck and the mast. This could have been VERY bad, as I couldn't do anything to get it off him. Fortunately for both of us, he could still breathe ok, as the still-pinned mast was angled down over the other shroud base. A regatta chase boat came over within a long few minutes to lift the mast tip so I could pull the fellow out unhurt but displeased. I expect that he has never been near a sailboat since.

And THATs why you remove the mast pin (newbies always freak out when I remove that pin). I say I'm preventing a potential nutcracker affect.

I had a shroud break on my 5.2 when landing on a beach in about 4ft surf, 15knt winds, so not crazy at all. Anyhow, i was upwind but no complete close-hulled. The mast came down violently. Luckily it fell away from us, but i think that a person on that side of the boat would have suffered significant damage. the only damage to the boat was a very patchable hole in the mainsail where the dagger baord punched through it, and of course i replaced all my shrouds.