Posted By: tomthouse
How to break a mast on a Stiletto 27...fyi - 07/28/11 05:01 PM
Here's how to break a mast while launching a Stiletto 27:
I suppose you guys should hear it straight from the source.
Instead of a trip to San Pedro or Marina Del Ray, Catalina, or Carlos and the Sea of Cortez, I'll be paying a bit of "stupid tax"; you know, the price for doing something really stupid.
It started with "being in a hurray", to get the boat launched.
After all, I've been working on it for the past couple of months.
I know that being in a hurry is a "bad beginning' to most things.
I've launched the boat lots of time by myself with no help, so no big deal, right?
Indeed this season's maiden voyage was to be on our own Bear Lake, Idaho, in preparation for trips to far-way, warm and exotic places....or for more local goof off sailing.
The way I often launch the boat by my self, in our local lake, is to back the trailer into the water barely up to the bottom of the hulls.
The lake doesn't drop off into deep water, it is just shallow for a long ways, so I launch with a tractor and run it way out and still the boat doesn't touch the water.
Next thing I do and on this occasion did, is to set an anchor off the rear beam and simply drive the tractor forward and the boat eases off the trailer and into the water.
Everything was going as it usually does and as a result, I wasn't paying attention.
This is the first time in the water after raising the mast a week ago.
Well, I didn't notice that I still had my spinnaker halyard cleated at one end and attached to the trailer's front mast cradle at the other end.
As I drove the tractor forward, the boat didn't budge off the trailer, but the mast did snap about six or eight feet dowm from the mast head.
I've seen completely screwed up days as a loved one expired due to cancer.
I've seen really really bad days when I was responsible for a couple of hostage rescues at the prison.
I've had really bad days when I was responsible for the resolution of prison riots.
Compared to any of that, this wasn't the worst day of my life, but it certainly wasn't the finest example of paying attention to small details.
Now I have to pay the price to fix or replace the mast (aka: stupid tax).
Just in case you are thinking about suggesting that I untie the spinnaker halyard...that was one of the first things I did....after the mast broke and came crashing down....
I'm just surprised that the mast didn't come straight down and crown me square in the head as I sat on the tractor.
Yep, not a stellar day, but still.... not as bad as some I've experienced.
Oh ya.....and just so I can get it all out of my system:
!@#$%^&*()_+...!!!!
I mean, Jesus wants me for a sun beam, a sun beam, a sun beam...la, la, la, la...
I suppose you guys should hear it straight from the source.
Instead of a trip to San Pedro or Marina Del Ray, Catalina, or Carlos and the Sea of Cortez, I'll be paying a bit of "stupid tax"; you know, the price for doing something really stupid.
It started with "being in a hurray", to get the boat launched.
After all, I've been working on it for the past couple of months.
I know that being in a hurry is a "bad beginning' to most things.
I've launched the boat lots of time by myself with no help, so no big deal, right?
Indeed this season's maiden voyage was to be on our own Bear Lake, Idaho, in preparation for trips to far-way, warm and exotic places....or for more local goof off sailing.
The way I often launch the boat by my self, in our local lake, is to back the trailer into the water barely up to the bottom of the hulls.
The lake doesn't drop off into deep water, it is just shallow for a long ways, so I launch with a tractor and run it way out and still the boat doesn't touch the water.
Next thing I do and on this occasion did, is to set an anchor off the rear beam and simply drive the tractor forward and the boat eases off the trailer and into the water.
Everything was going as it usually does and as a result, I wasn't paying attention.
This is the first time in the water after raising the mast a week ago.
Well, I didn't notice that I still had my spinnaker halyard cleated at one end and attached to the trailer's front mast cradle at the other end.
As I drove the tractor forward, the boat didn't budge off the trailer, but the mast did snap about six or eight feet dowm from the mast head.
I've seen completely screwed up days as a loved one expired due to cancer.
I've seen really really bad days when I was responsible for a couple of hostage rescues at the prison.
I've had really bad days when I was responsible for the resolution of prison riots.
Compared to any of that, this wasn't the worst day of my life, but it certainly wasn't the finest example of paying attention to small details.
Now I have to pay the price to fix or replace the mast (aka: stupid tax).
Just in case you are thinking about suggesting that I untie the spinnaker halyard...that was one of the first things I did....after the mast broke and came crashing down....
I'm just surprised that the mast didn't come straight down and crown me square in the head as I sat on the tractor.
Yep, not a stellar day, but still.... not as bad as some I've experienced.
Oh ya.....and just so I can get it all out of my system:
!@#$%^&*()_+...!!!!
I mean, Jesus wants me for a sun beam, a sun beam, a sun beam...la, la, la, la...