Scenario Planning: Down comes the rig

[goldenstate]

Pop, sproing, crash in the middle of the night. Headlamp up to see a broken shroud or two and the mast in the water.

The boat is probably leaned over and trapped by dragged mast. The sails are in the water, arresting motion.
If the wind was strong enough to bring down the rig, you're probably pretty puckered.

Probably the mast is still folded/attached to itself. I think some steps would be:

1. Ascertain if the sails and rigging can be brought safely alonside the boat.
2. Probably the mast will need to be cut off entirely. The cut end of the mast will be sharp and could put a hole in the boat depending on how the loads push it.
3. It may make sense to cut attached shrouds/stays first or second.

Bring a hacksaw.
Bring an effective means of cutting stays (cable cutters / reefing knife for synthetic)

Other ideas?

 

[Christian Williams]

Pretty necessary and about $40 at HOme Depot:

Also, I bring a variety of hardware-store plated metal cable clamps in order to make jury rigging out of whatever you can salvage.

 

[G Kiba]

Harbor Freight has bolt cutters as well. I also invested in a wire rope cutter (looks like a bolt cutter). They are not very expensive and cut wire rope faster than a bolt cutter. I carry both aboard.

https://menloservice-prod.ca.sandia.gov/https://www.e-rigging.com/search.asp?keyword=cable+cutter

 

[Grizz]

I may have more to add to this, once I quell the 'retch reflex', but this should be a good start...

"pretty puckered" is an understatement; there certaily was ample 'sphincter crinkle', and lots of cotton mouth (eventually). We did prove that our bolt cutters were useless, able to put a barely discernible dent on either side of the 1x19 standing rigging we were trying to cut. Resorted to pulling cotter pins and driving clevis pins from chainplates, stem and the upper connection of the backstay adjuster.

The mast parted, completely, @ 12" above the partner, but was being held in place by the standing rigging, vang and the halyards...1 halyard in particular. It was frightening to watch that halyard stretch like a rubber band, then compress and repeat, with each roll of the wave sets we were in.

There was no chance of safely saving the rig and sails. Too heavy, too much motion, too much everything. I did NOT want to make 'that phone call' to the wife of the crew member injured (or worse) because of dollars. Saved the boom, saving the vang proved too difficult, we saved the backstay adjuster. When it came time (who knows how long it really was) to cut the rig loose, we checked again (and again) that nothing was overlooked, no one was going be drug off by the rigging, and I took a knife to the 'rubber band halyard', which by that time was the only component keeping the mast connected to the boat.

It made a loud "sproing!' when cut, the windage of the hull pulled the boat away from the mast/sails to starboard, laying flat to the surfa ce for a short period of time and within a minute the mast was gone. We idled for @ 10 minutes, checked all 'round the hull 2-3 times to verify there was no errant snags from halyards, sails, shrouds...and put the engine in gear. All clear. 4.5 hour chug back to harbor. Worse ride, ever, wollowing in big waves on our beam, crew turning green. No one hurled, although I wanted to, several times. Not from sea state, from, well, you know...

I'll take a pic of the sheared mast, it tells a lot of the story. Stay tuned.

 

[Loren Beach]

Decades ago, when I was crew (and driving at the crucial and unlucky moment) on a Ranger 29, our rig went over the side, west of Grays Harbor. Double lowers, single spreader. One of the lowers broke, from an invisible place down inside the top of the swage. The other lower instantly broke a toggle, in a micro second.
Rig folded at the spreader into a hairpin and all went OB. Mast was still captured in the vicinity of its deck-stepped base, by a lot of halyards.
We saved the boom. Rest of the rig was bouncing in the swells. Pulled all the pins, and let it go. Motored back to Astoria. It was an abrupt end to a vacation north to Puget Sound with the boat owner.
No one hurt, just all were amazed.
Later when I had "stress corrosion" explained to me I became a real believer.

No need to cut anything but the lines and or rope tails.

Speaking of 'tools' I would advise several long nose pliers for pulling out jammed cotters. And some other types of pliers, too.

 

[Kenneth K]

Also, I bring a variety of hardware-store plated metal cable clamps in order to make jury rigging out of whatever you can salvage.

Cable clamps work like a charm to mend rigging. That's my primary forestay right now while the new one is being made. Maybe keep some spare thimbles on hand, too.

 

[Navman]

Cable cutters work better than bolt cutters. Cable cutters have a bypass blade which makes a clean cut without crushing. Bolt cutters crush before they cut. Makes a big difference if you are the one nicro pressing a wired thimble. The strands will feed into the nicro much easier without as many "meathooks" to prick your fingers.