Jake,
There is a bail about 12" below the spin tang, allowing the spin hlyd to rotate easily. But the idea of the mast going into some violent motion when the spin let go does seem plausible. We did see something similar(very ugly) occur early last year when one strand of the stbd shroud busted. That's when we replaced all shrouds and diamonds.
Dave
I see the bail now - question, though...It looks like your halyard goes through the bail, to the hound mounted block, and back down through the bail presumably with a stopper ball or something at the head of the kite. I think the original I20's were rigged that way but we changed to a system where we ran a short pigtail line from the upper hound to a small block that stuck out just below the bail. The halyard would go through this block on the extension and the pigtail allowed the halyard to rotate better. Food for thought, maybe, for the next setup (I doubt it had anything to do with this issue). It's possible the 20's switched to that pigtail system because the bail kept bending upward from hoist pressure...I seem to remember that happening a lot.
