Rob Hessenius
Inactive Member
A couple of people asked me to tell of my demasting expierence last year. Its kinda long and a story that you really dont like to relive. I hope this might help out someone out in the future.
This happened on Sept 15th last year. Last spring I decided that I was just going to replace all of the standing rigging since my mast was already down for the winter and I was doing some work on my centerboard. I sent in all my rigging into West Marine and had them duplicate it, but also beef it up from 5/32 to 3/16 wire. Having a bare mast I thought it would be a good time to rewire all the electrical wiring inside of the mast too. I also inspected every screw and rivet on the mast too. I was amazed at how many screws that needed tightening. The new rigging came back from West Marine and it all looked just beautiful. It really gave me a sense of security knowing that all of it was new. I was always afraid of the forestay because I really not could inspect it because it was inside of the Harken foils and attached inside of the lower drum.
When the time came to attach all the new rigging all went very smoothly. We raised the mast and attached all the stays to their proper plates. Nothing in my life has gone as smoothly as this. I then tuned the rig to just general specs. I'm not a racer so there was no over-tightening or added pre-bend. Just your typical standing Ericson telephone pole.
Last summers plans were very simple, just sail my ass off. I was not going to do anything with the boat other than clean it and make sure it was properly stocked with cold adult beverages. True to my intentions I sailed a ton of miles and hours and really enjoyed the summer. I was having a blast.
I normally keep the boat in the water till mid October, fall provides some of the finest days out on the lake with minimal boat traffic. It was a nice day with winds steadily blowing out of the southwest at about 10 mph. So I set out for a nice 3-4 hour cruise straight south with only the headsail out and on autopilot. I ran on just a beautiful port tack for a couple of hours and just enjoyed the sights the sun and some tunes. I came about and went on a nice reach to the northeast. The clouds began to roll in and the wind began to pick up. It was going to be a fast sled ride back up north. On my run the wind began to clock northerly and the waves began to build. At this point the wind was blowing in the mid to upper teens and I decided to reduce my headsail. It was still a very pleasant sail but now with a little bit more spunk. I continued heading northeast till I sailed past the bay that I needed to enter to dock the boat. I had no deadlines or commitments to meet all I wanted was an easy in without pinching to make my port. At this point I saw that I could easily do this so I sent a heading into the autopilot to gybe to a westerly heading. The boat responded and came around. We began the port tack and I grabbed the winch handle to bring in the headsail. I started cranking on the winch flattening the sail out with my back to the starboard side of the boat. It was then that I heard a strange noise, defiantly metal related. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the spreader separate from the mast and then a popping sound, similar to the noise that is made my snapping rubberbands. Then as fast as you can imagine all the sails and rigging was in the water off the portside. The first thought that went thru my mind was WOW, did that really just happen!!! I actually broke out in laughter, strange but true. Then reality began to set in, here I was 3 miles offshore with all this crap hanging over the side of the boat. I looked at the mess that was strewn all about and hanging over the side of the boat feeling helpless. So I looked at what had to be done to get all this crap back up on deck. The top half of the mast was nowhere to be seen, but it was still attached by the mangled furler foil and other stays. I just started pulling wires until I raised the second part of my now masts. Using brute strength and various lines and the winches I was able to get everything back on top. I did consider disconnecting everything and tying a fender to mark the location and come back with some others to help. But for some reason that just did not seem to be the right thing to do. It took me about an hour to get everything on board. I was sore and beginning to feel humiliated, but very happy that I was not injured. I finally sat down and relaxed and grabbed a beer and a smoke. I then fired up the motor to begin the cruise of shame back into the marina. I was praying that no one would be there to see my tangled mess. As I entered the marina I could only see 2 cars in the lot, both of my sailing buddies. I was going to have to relive this story immediately, just what I didn't really want to do, but that's life.
The next morning I woke up feeling like my body was one complete sore bruise! I pinched myself to see if it was a dream, but nope it hurt. I then went down to the marina and began sorting out the tangled mess. Knowing that I had only had liability insurance I wanted to be careful to save as much as possible. I slowly pulled things off piece by piece, wire by wire. I first took off the boom with the main sail and cover off. Then I disconnected the top of the furler at the masthead and pulled off the headsail with all the broken foils. I pulled the sail off the foils and to my amazement there was not a single tear in the sail at all!! Then I disconnected all the stays and removed my two masts. Then disconnecting all the stays off the masts and coiling them up into a neat circle. Here I found the starboard spreader hanging by the boot and the monel wire holding it to the outer stay. The port spreader broke as I pulled the rigging back aboard. I was pretty sure that this was the place of failure.
After sorting out all the pieces of the puzzle I realized that I still had two working sails and the boom. I had the stays all inspected by a surveyor and they were all ok, except the forestay. I was going to need to get some new parts for my furler and a new mast. That's where I talked to a friend I met online who is a professional rigger. He said there was a chance that my mast could be spliced/sleeved and I would not have to purchase another one. Since my mast broke right at the spreader he felt that this was applicable, but I would lose a little bit of height. I was apprehensive at first till he showed me pictures of brand new boats that come with spliced/sleeved mast right from the manufacturer. My friend asked me to send him a 3" cross section of the mast so he could build me an internal sleeve. I then took the sleeve to my local sail boat guy and we followed the riggers exact instructions. The sleeve was epoxied and and rivited into place. I lost a total of 7" of mast height, I had to shorten all the stays with Hayn Hi-Mod compression studs and purchased new foiled spreaders and mounts from Dywer Spars and various parts from Harken. I needed to shorten the headsail by the sailmaker, but had plenty of clearance below the boom to give the height adjustment. The total cost to put it all back together was a little over $500. I tried to document this whole process with pictures and other means so as to potentially help others in the future that this might happen to.
I know some people would not have gone about this repair the way I did, but I felt this was the way I had to go. Im not really sure if I could have prevented this, just bad luck. Im joyful to have it all back together and Im foremost happy that it ended up a good story instead of sad story. By no means do I want to see anybody go through what I did, but I happy that it all turned out.
This happened on Sept 15th last year. Last spring I decided that I was just going to replace all of the standing rigging since my mast was already down for the winter and I was doing some work on my centerboard. I sent in all my rigging into West Marine and had them duplicate it, but also beef it up from 5/32 to 3/16 wire. Having a bare mast I thought it would be a good time to rewire all the electrical wiring inside of the mast too. I also inspected every screw and rivet on the mast too. I was amazed at how many screws that needed tightening. The new rigging came back from West Marine and it all looked just beautiful. It really gave me a sense of security knowing that all of it was new. I was always afraid of the forestay because I really not could inspect it because it was inside of the Harken foils and attached inside of the lower drum.
When the time came to attach all the new rigging all went very smoothly. We raised the mast and attached all the stays to their proper plates. Nothing in my life has gone as smoothly as this. I then tuned the rig to just general specs. I'm not a racer so there was no over-tightening or added pre-bend. Just your typical standing Ericson telephone pole.
Last summers plans were very simple, just sail my ass off. I was not going to do anything with the boat other than clean it and make sure it was properly stocked with cold adult beverages. True to my intentions I sailed a ton of miles and hours and really enjoyed the summer. I was having a blast.
I normally keep the boat in the water till mid October, fall provides some of the finest days out on the lake with minimal boat traffic. It was a nice day with winds steadily blowing out of the southwest at about 10 mph. So I set out for a nice 3-4 hour cruise straight south with only the headsail out and on autopilot. I ran on just a beautiful port tack for a couple of hours and just enjoyed the sights the sun and some tunes. I came about and went on a nice reach to the northeast. The clouds began to roll in and the wind began to pick up. It was going to be a fast sled ride back up north. On my run the wind began to clock northerly and the waves began to build. At this point the wind was blowing in the mid to upper teens and I decided to reduce my headsail. It was still a very pleasant sail but now with a little bit more spunk. I continued heading northeast till I sailed past the bay that I needed to enter to dock the boat. I had no deadlines or commitments to meet all I wanted was an easy in without pinching to make my port. At this point I saw that I could easily do this so I sent a heading into the autopilot to gybe to a westerly heading. The boat responded and came around. We began the port tack and I grabbed the winch handle to bring in the headsail. I started cranking on the winch flattening the sail out with my back to the starboard side of the boat. It was then that I heard a strange noise, defiantly metal related. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the spreader separate from the mast and then a popping sound, similar to the noise that is made my snapping rubberbands. Then as fast as you can imagine all the sails and rigging was in the water off the portside. The first thought that went thru my mind was WOW, did that really just happen!!! I actually broke out in laughter, strange but true. Then reality began to set in, here I was 3 miles offshore with all this crap hanging over the side of the boat. I looked at the mess that was strewn all about and hanging over the side of the boat feeling helpless. So I looked at what had to be done to get all this crap back up on deck. The top half of the mast was nowhere to be seen, but it was still attached by the mangled furler foil and other stays. I just started pulling wires until I raised the second part of my now masts. Using brute strength and various lines and the winches I was able to get everything back on top. I did consider disconnecting everything and tying a fender to mark the location and come back with some others to help. But for some reason that just did not seem to be the right thing to do. It took me about an hour to get everything on board. I was sore and beginning to feel humiliated, but very happy that I was not injured. I finally sat down and relaxed and grabbed a beer and a smoke. I then fired up the motor to begin the cruise of shame back into the marina. I was praying that no one would be there to see my tangled mess. As I entered the marina I could only see 2 cars in the lot, both of my sailing buddies. I was going to have to relive this story immediately, just what I didn't really want to do, but that's life.
The next morning I woke up feeling like my body was one complete sore bruise! I pinched myself to see if it was a dream, but nope it hurt. I then went down to the marina and began sorting out the tangled mess. Knowing that I had only had liability insurance I wanted to be careful to save as much as possible. I slowly pulled things off piece by piece, wire by wire. I first took off the boom with the main sail and cover off. Then I disconnected the top of the furler at the masthead and pulled off the headsail with all the broken foils. I pulled the sail off the foils and to my amazement there was not a single tear in the sail at all!! Then I disconnected all the stays and removed my two masts. Then disconnecting all the stays off the masts and coiling them up into a neat circle. Here I found the starboard spreader hanging by the boot and the monel wire holding it to the outer stay. The port spreader broke as I pulled the rigging back aboard. I was pretty sure that this was the place of failure.
After sorting out all the pieces of the puzzle I realized that I still had two working sails and the boom. I had the stays all inspected by a surveyor and they were all ok, except the forestay. I was going to need to get some new parts for my furler and a new mast. That's where I talked to a friend I met online who is a professional rigger. He said there was a chance that my mast could be spliced/sleeved and I would not have to purchase another one. Since my mast broke right at the spreader he felt that this was applicable, but I would lose a little bit of height. I was apprehensive at first till he showed me pictures of brand new boats that come with spliced/sleeved mast right from the manufacturer. My friend asked me to send him a 3" cross section of the mast so he could build me an internal sleeve. I then took the sleeve to my local sail boat guy and we followed the riggers exact instructions. The sleeve was epoxied and and rivited into place. I lost a total of 7" of mast height, I had to shorten all the stays with Hayn Hi-Mod compression studs and purchased new foiled spreaders and mounts from Dywer Spars and various parts from Harken. I needed to shorten the headsail by the sailmaker, but had plenty of clearance below the boom to give the height adjustment. The total cost to put it all back together was a little over $500. I tried to document this whole process with pictures and other means so as to potentially help others in the future that this might happen to.
I know some people would not have gone about this repair the way I did, but I felt this was the way I had to go. Im not really sure if I could have prevented this, just bad luck. Im joyful to have it all back together and Im foremost happy that it ended up a good story instead of sad story. By no means do I want to see anybody go through what I did, but I happy that it all turned out.
Attachments
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Mast Pictures 004.jpg -
Mast Pictures 001.jpg -
Mast Pictures 005.jpg
