On November 3rd we were sailing between Baltimore Light and Rock Hall in the Chesapeake when we lost our mast.
We were having a great sail, traveling briskly close hauled through choppy waves in a beautiful breeze when the furler came flying back towards our heads. As I turned to starboard to get the load off the now non-existent fore stay and keep the wrecking ball of a furler from decapitating us the mast came down across the starboard quarter of the boat, crumpling near the lower spreader. The chain plate near the head ripped up and out of the boat, the sails were shredded, the furler demolished, and there was random other damage to stanchions, etcetera. (There was an old hidden corrosion crack that let go underneath the stainless stemhead strap where it folded around the nose of the vessel beside the anchor roller.)
Insurance is going to total the Ericson 35 and every sensible person I have talked to says take the money and buy something different.
Being a totally irrational optimist, I am tempted to buy back the hulk from the insurance people and restore the boat. I hate to see her end up in a landfill and her lines are so much prettier than most of what's out there.
I am trying to find a second hand mast for Bayleif. If I can get one for a reasonable price then I can handle most of the deck-down repairs myself over the winter. (Right... And my old neighbor said he would soon finish the home-built aircraft he started twenty years before he quit on it and moved to Florida!)
Another possibility is to try to straighten the old mast, saw out about a foot, and insert an internal or external doubler to reinforce the joint.
If anyone knows of a suitable mast lying around please let me know.
Roger Kaufman
kaufman1@gwu.edu
703-893-0840 (H)
703-867-4998(C)
We were having a great sail, traveling briskly close hauled through choppy waves in a beautiful breeze when the furler came flying back towards our heads. As I turned to starboard to get the load off the now non-existent fore stay and keep the wrecking ball of a furler from decapitating us the mast came down across the starboard quarter of the boat, crumpling near the lower spreader. The chain plate near the head ripped up and out of the boat, the sails were shredded, the furler demolished, and there was random other damage to stanchions, etcetera. (There was an old hidden corrosion crack that let go underneath the stainless stemhead strap where it folded around the nose of the vessel beside the anchor roller.)
Insurance is going to total the Ericson 35 and every sensible person I have talked to says take the money and buy something different.
Being a totally irrational optimist, I am tempted to buy back the hulk from the insurance people and restore the boat. I hate to see her end up in a landfill and her lines are so much prettier than most of what's out there.
I am trying to find a second hand mast for Bayleif. If I can get one for a reasonable price then I can handle most of the deck-down repairs myself over the winter. (Right... And my old neighbor said he would soon finish the home-built aircraft he started twenty years before he quit on it and moved to Florida!)
Another possibility is to try to straighten the old mast, saw out about a foot, and insert an internal or external doubler to reinforce the joint.
If anyone knows of a suitable mast lying around please let me know.
Roger Kaufman
kaufman1@gwu.edu
703-893-0840 (H)
703-867-4998(C)
