What failed that caused you to demast?

I just read about someones bridal tang breaking off... wow.. thats hard to predict.

Got me thinking... maybe we could write up a list of reasons why people demast as a guide of items to inspect more often.
Of course this wont prevent failures in hard to see areas (like a stress crack in a bow tang) but it may help others.

I demasted 2 weeks ago with a beautiful blond on the wire. The cause... my steel ring on top of my furler blew out. I had noticed it had elongated, but failed to replace this $3.00 part.. luckily no other damage happened and a nice power boater towed me about 5 miles to shore...

Safety splint on the pin holding the shroud went missing, even though it was taped.. 200kgs on the wire wire was lifted into the boat.

I lost a shroud - it parted just inside the fitting at the base. It was clear that the aircraft fitting had retained some moisture there and even though the boat was rinsed after each regatta, there was corrosion going on where I couldn't easily see it. Mast came down in slo-mo on the way out the inlet at the Clearwater Sailing Center with a rushing incoming tide. I though I was hot snot for getting under the bridge in one tack without missing a step... kicked a field goal on the drifting boat back through the bridge and caught a reluctant fishing boat for the short tow back. Missed the whole regatta. My standing rigging was about three years old at the time.

Old stuff. Put EVERYTHING on a two year replacement schedule.

We (Hobie fleet 48) have had 2 demastings on H18s this past sailing season. Both were when the shroud anchor pin bolt snapped. These boats are sailed maybe 2 to 3 times a month from Memorial Day into late October always in fresh water.

Seriously Andrew? You need us to help you compile a list? Every component that is involved with keeping you mast vertical is also subject to failure. I've had (or seen others have) the following items break:

Bow tang
Wires
Clevis pins / ring dings
Through-hull anchors

Other than the mast hounds, that's all there is keeping a H16 mast vertical. So, I'd say it's ALL subject to failure. Each boat model will have its own list, since the components are slightly different, but the basic idea is, if it's a part that's involved in holding up the mast, expect that it will fail at some point and should be routinely inspected.

Mike

I thought of this more as a general discussion to help others, and newer sailors... not really a list for me but i did hope to learn a thing or 2 perhaps

The hole that the shrouds attach to on the top of the mast stretched out almost to failure (saw a crack at the bottom). Didn't lose the mast, but could have it the weather was bad.

I noticed it at disassembly after retiring from Macho Man. We retired because our upper rudder pintle broke outside the inlet for the Clearwater Sailing Center (in the middle of an Opti race course, too). Turned out this part wasn't welded on both sides, and was prone to failure (looked like a clean, sudden break)

So, I guess the rudder sacrificed itself to save the mast?

Andrew,
That was me you were talking about.

We didn't dismast... As a matter of fact, the mast is still up. I've got to get out and unstep it this afternoon.

Some boats shackle the spinny block to the shoud base replacing the clevis pin with the shackle. Repeated use of the spinny sheet seems to slowly undo the shackle over time.

Common in Dragoons [and older Pacifics apparently]

Those opti's have no business being out in the gulf and in the clearwater / sand key pass... they take up the entire pass with 30 kids, and that pass can get insane waves and tides in different directions.

2 weeks ago the opt's stopped all traffic for 15 minutes in crazy tides while i was there.

This past Mini Machoman i crewed for Catman. we were trapped with a spin out and the opti chase boats cut us off accross our bow and bullhored us to get out of their race. We were not in their race and when we yelled "WE are in a race" they said BS!!!

I did about 5 macho man races when I owned my N20. I think 4 of those races ended up going through an Opti race course right there at the inlet. For the most part, they left us alone. Once the PRO boat drove up on us, but didn't give us a hard time because we ripped through one side of the course while the boats were on the other side...

Personally, I'm glad to see boats out there racing, and will gladly duck them if I think I'm going to be a problem on their course. Mainly, though, I'm happy to show off multi-speed for those guys, who I hope will eventually become multi-sailors...

Same thing happened to us. They were really pricks about it. Their boats were at the other end of their course and we went across one corner of their area. Barbie told them to F-OFF which I think they did.

Good point, I understand Andrew. All I really meant to say is, everything in the "system" is vulnerable. And, after reading some of the responses, there can be surprises, so this is a great thread.

As for the Optis... It's not the 30 Optis that you have to worry about, or even the 4-5 RC boats. It's the 20 coach/parent boats... Of course, with all those power boats available, surely someone offered to tow you in?

As someone who runs a lot of kid events, including Optis, I'm very surprised they wouldn't be taking them under tow through a narrow pass, especially with heavy current.

I can also tell you that we tend to be very protective of our racing circles, and you'd be amazed at what morons will do to a race course. "Look at all the cute boats..."

Mike

my wallet & brain ego and testosterone won out.

Broken shackle that was part of a Harken three sheeve block for an Aussie system.

Enlarged the hole in the block and used a Schaffer stamped steel shackle. Lasted ten years.

H-18 shroud anchor pin thru hull lip. $16 part did $500 in damage.

Had a dolphin Striker cable snap on a 12' wide boat, which caused the boat to fold in half, causing the mast to come down.

Beat that...

Lost pin in shackle holding spinn block to sidestay tang, mast came down in slow mo narowly missing competitors. Now everythings taped.

What is the correct term for losing the mast?

I learned the term as "de-mast", but when I read an old sailing book years later, they used the term "dis-mast".

Does the bow rising to meet the mast [Beat that]
More recently I had a sidestay break inside of the suage on my 5.8 and cause me a pile of grief

My forestay snapped in the middle of the wire. old wire, should have replaced sooner. lesson learned...

It's just a flesh wound. It can be fixed!

Now I believe the PRO is responsable for setting the race course .... so if you while racing in your race happen to infringe on another race course my experience leads me to believe that one or both of the PRO's are at fault for not situating/siting their respective race course properly.

In my experience when something like that happens one or both race courses are re-set eliminating any possible incidences. In one case the windward mark for the beach cats was located just beyond the Opti Course, making us beach catters pass directly through the Opti Course ... after the first race several of the beach cats went by the Committee Boat and informed our PRO of the situation and requested that the beach cat windward mark be relocated even though it was a light air day, we were not comfortable interfering w/ the Opti Races ... we did not feel it was "proper form". Just because we were bigger faster and older that did not allow us to stomp all over another classes racing. The Pro relocated our windward mark per our request, also the Opti Pro re-located his course slightly and that night during "social hour" they tracked us down and thanked us as a class for pointing out the issue and our "sportsmanship" towards the Opti's.

That may have been our (beach cats) first time at that event .... but we have been invited back faithfully every year since!!!


Harry

Good Sportsmanship and good manners, both on and off the racecourse, will almost always pay huge dividends.

I had a few wires starting to break so I replaced all the friggin riggin. Second time out with my new rigging, I was not on the boat I was cooking for a large beach party, a bubble headed beach blond ask if my sail boat was suppose to have a mast. I answered yes they have a mast that is what holds the sail thinking gosh this one has the bleach formula a bit too strong. She says pointing out to the ocean well your boat does not have one. To my amazement she was right it lost the rig. We ususally had a few hundred people at the same time at the party that lasted all day as they came and went. We had acouple of cats on the beach to give rides to people

So that day I was in charge of an up to a 1000 person beach bash, my boat de-masted, and when I got home my wife’s horse coliced so we had to call the vet at 11 pm. Any one of the events in a week-end would be enough let alone all three in one day.

When the rigging shop made the crimps they made them too loose. No damage to the boat they made new wires and double crimped the new wires. I never went back to them for more work.

I agree, but our race was a 25 mile distance race from Dunedin, and the opti's are out of the clearwater pass... differnt cities, and no communication between clubs/races.

I am all in favor of young sailors, but they have a HUGE protected area to sail in, there is no need for them to go out into a crazy pass, with tons of traffic, and dangerious tides and currents. IF they need to go out there for some reason... they dont need to take up the entire pass... they could use 1/2 of it and not stop traffic. and lastly, their chase boats acted in a seriously dangerious way (cutting accross our bows, while under spinnaker) to scream at us to get out of thier way... (when we were over a mile away from any opti at that time).....

Ring Ding broke and let the cotter pin pop out. LUCKILY it did it just as we started to go out. Mast did a SLOW fall over. LOL LOL

Doug

The cable on the SC20 broke????? That's amazing!!!! That seems hugely overbuilt, where did it fail?

Dave

I have seen transoms rip off 2 SC's.. i am sure it could happen to any boat, but i have only seen it happen to 2 (in person).. both SC's

Oh man! That'll slow you down and ruin your day. There's a really nice (CF hulls) SC22 on the West River. The amount of power it's rig develops is outrageous, insanely wide beam and tall rig. Like a freight train when reaching.They have to be over-built to hold up to the loads placed on the foils in 15+ knot conditions.

I've had the shroud pull through the hull tang. No warning. Just fatigue on a 10 yr-old boat. Recently, had the forestay shackle start to give way because the pin had worked its way open. Fortunately, the rig tension did not allow it to back out all of the way but the additional slack in the rig made it obvious that something was wrong. Now I pointedly inspect the shroud and forestay contacts to confirm that they are secure before every sail.