Dismasted out in the ocean today
Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2020 4:56 pm
We were about 3 miles off shore. Beautiful day. I had the whole crew on board, my wife and two kids (7 and 4). We were on a close reach, the wind at about 12-15 mph. The port shroud snapped clean right at the turnbuckle. The crew performed admirably, I'm not even sure the kids realized what was going on. My wife is an officer in the Coast Guard, she's a natural leader and very calm under stress. So the whole thing went about as smoothly as it could have. As soon as the mast fell we pulled in the main, detached the boom from the mast, and while I rolled the sail around the boom she took the jib off the stay it and we threw the boom and jib into the cuddy. I removed the tiller, put my big PVC pipe mast crutch on the transom, and together we were able to haul the mast up out of the water pretty easily using the rigging and get it secured in the crutch and the bottom tied to the bow cleats. Luckily the motor started right up (never know with a 40 year old Mercury, but I trust that thing with my life now) and we made the long ride of shame back to the dock. So if you've never dismasted before, don't stress it's not as bad as you'd think it would be.
I have no idea how old the standing rigging was, or why it snapped like that. Now my mast is broken though and I don't know what to do. It was a two piece mast with a tabernacle. The tabernacle and upper part of the mast is fine, but the screws ripped right out of the lower part of the mast. Do I have to order a whole new mast? Can I just get the bottom part? If I get a new mast will I have to cut it and install the tabernacle myself? Should I even worry about the tabernacle or just keep it as one piece? It's a trailer sailer, so I have to step the mast by myself at the dock every time I take it out, I've gotten really good at doing it by myself with the tabernacle. Would I be able to step a solid mast by myself if I don't want to use a tabernacle going forward?