AZAB off to rocky start?

[capnsensible]

Great post thanks and good luck for the next bit! :encouragement:

 

[matt1]

Aye, so just to clarify a bit, yeah, my mast chuffin broke didn't it. At night. In the dark.
It was a five and half year old selden mast, (entirely replaced the rig and sails in late 2013/ commissioned march 2014)
We'd sailed conservatively, it was just a f5-6 with smoothish sea state. We had 2 reefs in and a little bit of jib rolled away.
Selden refuse to believe the mast would snap.
I assured them it did, because I heard and saw it go. Very impressive too. I felt every single shroud under tension as the mast lay like an inverted L shape hanging over the side. Every line, cable and shroud had to be cut away.
Less impressed with losing the lot nearly 400 miles from port, but there you go.
Boogie Nights is currently having a little rest in the lovely island of Sao Miguel while I earn the money to get a rig made and sent out.
Current plans are to sail back at first weather window in spring 2020 and get a shuffle on for the start of the yachting monthly triangle race in June.
Offshore sailing carries risks. But they're calculated. I was more prepared for hitting a submerged container and losing the rudder than for dismasting. Thankfully the spare spin pole I carry around for emergency steering also works well as a jury rig A frame. The rest of the boat, even through the f8-9 and rough stuff we had earlier in the race was tickety boo thanks very much. The Dehler 36 CWS is a stonkingly fun boat to sail and a you get a heck of a lot of boat for, relatively speaking, not a lot of outlay. (Except for paying for two entire rigs in the space of 6 years I don't want to dwell on that)

It's certainly not put me off racing offshore, if anything it's made me more determined to get my old boat fixed and carry on some more.

Hi Jayne - what do you think was the primary cause of the rig failure. Normally Selden are pretty bullet proof so would be good to know your thoughts

 

[Fox Morgan]

Good question. The truth lies 4000m down at the bottom of the Atlantic.

When I replaced my original mast in 2013, I was replacing the original dehler section. (It was an uneconomical repair) the replacement selden section was narrower but deeper, and therefore stiffer.
The original rig has non stop stays, lower, inter and upper. But, also had small non adjustable check stays that go just aft of the lower spreader and connect to the mast approximately half way, the smaller chainplates are few inches aft of the main chain plates.
The new mast didn't have those fitted as selden and allspars said it didn't need them any more.

The mast also had a self tacking jib sheet exit the mast via sheave box about 2 or 3 feet above the bottom spreader.
The self tacking sheet wasn't used often. But I'd used it a week before the race on a lazy 3 day qualifying passage to avoid using my fab racing blade too much.

I'd covered about 10,000 miles with the recently deceased mast.
Some of the had been in rough weather. The Irish sea gave us a battering back in 2016. We had a battering 5 days into the azab with a f8-9. We were hit with a rogue wave.

But the boat sailed fine, everything looked fine. I kept a good eye in the rig daily. The rig tension looked good. Even the video taken 20 mins before the total failure showed nothing at all of any concern.

I can only surmise, that a combination of factors, possibly mast pant, from some fairly epic adventures. Lack of check stays. Underestimation by selden of the rig failure points.
Possibly a stress fracture on a mast rivet or sheave box.
If I'd only ever sailed around the solent and south coast, maybe it would have survived perfectly well with no check stays for another 20 odd years.
But, I think they didn't factor in the way I wanted to use the boat and make allowance for the fact I'd be out in storm conditions occasionally with no ability to head to shelter.
It snapped at a point just below the self tacking sheet sheave and above the spreader.

But, it's just guess work.

The next mast WILL be having those stays put back in.

It doesn't half make a loud noise when a mast snaps I can tell you.

 

[dom]

You are saying that Allspars/Selden explicitly suggested the mast could run an inner blade jib reeved from a sheave just above the first set of spreaders with no check stay? If so, that was ostensibly dumb advice (unless mast section was very large) and you almost certainly have basis for a successful claim. If not, however, the position is somewhat different.

Also: when was the rig last checked and was that documented per chance?

 

[Fox Morgan]

I wasn't using the self tacker at the time, and generally didn't use it much at all.
I was usually standard sheets on the blade (it was not cut for self tacking)

Selden are still absolutely sure that the mast section I had was well within tolerances and didn't need any additional stays other than the basic 3 up, forestay back stay.

I haven't the energy to think about litigation. I'm just going to a different rigger and now with the benefit of experience, I'll be putting the little stays back in.

I generally have the rig checked by a pro rigger at the start of each season, then go up myself at regular intervals. I take pictures while I'm up there to study on the ground so to speak.

 

[Yellow Ballad]

Jayne, I'm sure you're already on it but Eurospars in Plymouth are Sparcraft dealers and to be honest with the GGR antics I was really sold on the kit and how they will customise to suit. If and when I ever replace the rig on my boat I will be looking at the sparcraft stuff first.

 

[Fox Morgan]

Whoops, accidentally deleted the reply because mobile optimisation isn't very optimised on this site and accidentally wiped it instead of adjusting a typo.

It said:
Im going with A2 rigging in falmouth because they have an excellent reputation and were also on the race in an identical boat to mine, except they had the original dehler rig.

Sparcraft seem to be the top choice at the moment. Im awaiting quotes, so early days yet.