Dismasted

westhinder

westhinder

Well-Known Member
Joined
15 Feb 2003
Messages
2,656
Location
Belgium
Visit site
I am borrowing Daydream Believer's suggestion in another thread, as it has made me think and I do not want to hijack the other thread

I have a pair of bolt croppers aboard (as I`m sure many of us do) in the event of dismasting. But I have never used them in anger and frankly have some doubts about their effectiveness.
I would like to hear from anyone who has experienced a dismasting, what did you do and what did or did not work? I have seen a suggestion a small angle grinder is worth having, what do you think of that?
 
westhinder said:
I am borrowing Daydream Believer's suggestion in another thread, as it has made me think and I do not want to hijack the other thread

I have a pair of bolt croppers aboard (as I`m sure many of us do) in the event of dismasting. But I have never used them in anger and frankly have some doubts about their effectiveness.
I would like to hear from anyone who has experienced a dismasting, what did you do and what did or did not work? I have seen a suggestion a small angle grinder is worth having, what do you think of that?
Click to expand...

This has been discussed (at length!) on here several times. My experience matched my expectations in that boltcroppers would have been useless and that undoing clevis pins was easy. We recovered the whole lot back onto the deck, but a junior hacksaw and new blades would have been my choice for severing the last connections if the pin couldn't be drifted out. A minigrinder would be a bit quicker but not essential.
 
westhinder said:
I am borrowing Daydream Believer's suggestion in another thread, as it has made me think and I do not want to hijack the other thread

I have a pair of bolt croppers aboard (as I`m sure many of us do) in the event of dismasting. But I have never used them in anger and frankly have some doubts about their effectiveness.
I would like to hear from anyone who has experienced a dismasting, what did you do and what did or did not work? I have seen a suggestion a small angle grinder is worth having, what do you think of that?
Click to expand...

I've never had a dismasting but I wouldn't want a tool that required both hands to operate. I have an always-charged grinder, with guard attached, with spare battery (shared with the onboard drill) that I can grip and operate with one hand, and a large hacksaw with bi-metal blades. I saw a test some time ago which put an angle grinder ahead of any but the most expensive cutters.
 
Last edited:
westhinder said:
I have a pair of bolt croppers aboard (as I`m sure many of us do) in the event of dismasting. But I have never used them in anger and frankly have some doubts about their effectiveness.
I would like to hear from anyone who has experienced a dismasting, what did you do and what did or did not work? I have seen a suggestion a small angle grinder is worth having, what do you think of that?
Click to expand...

I've only been dismasted in relatively small boats. A bolt cropper is fine, but as already mentioned, it's worth checking yours on a sample of what you may wish to cut. My 14mm stays are for example challenging.

Re an angle grinder; I have one aboard as do many, but they're not waterproof and pose obvious dangers if used in heavy weather.

A proper hydraulic cutter is prob the best bet, but they're not that cheap.
 
Back in the early 1970's we lost a mast on a 30ft racing yacht. We managed to haul the mast back on board and sail back using a pair of spinnaker poles. The biggest surprise was how much the boat moved compared to with the mast up, it was far more violent. Never tried cutting any of the wire, but would probably have removed the split pins and clevis pins, marking the mast position using a line with a fender. For us it was lucky we kept the mast as it was replaced for free as it failed due to a manufacturing fault. Loosing a mast is not a nice experience and being prepared is very sensible. I have some bolt croppers and several hack saws on board, but I would expect to remove the pins for speed as there are only 7 to remove on my Fulmar's ¾ rigged mast. For larger boats a battery powered angle grinder would be my choice.
 
Concerto said:
The biggest surprise was how much the boat moved compared to with the mast up, it was far more violent.
Click to expand...

I used to lower the mast on my 21' Jouster to do work on masthead things, and even in sheltered places it was remarkable how much more twitchy she was with it down.
 
JumbleDuck said:
I used to lower the mast on my 21' Jouster to do work on masthead things, and even in sheltered places it was remarkable how much more twitchy she was with it down.
Click to expand...

You should have tried my Hunter Formula 1, a Stephen Jones extreme race boat 22ft long, 8ft beam and lock down keel. With the mast down and the keel lifted ready to enter the launching/recovery trailer, that was very tippy and you had to be very careful moving anywhere on board.
 
Concerto said:
..... I would expect to remove the pins for speed as there are only 7 to remove on my Fulmar's ¾ rigged mast. For larger boats a battery powered angle grinder would be my choice.
Click to expand...

Th video showed that hacksaw blades for stainless were very fast, although the item to be cut was under tension, much faster than and easier than removing a split pin, position a drift, hammering out a pin. IIRC there is a thread on this forum where a person who lost their mast described pushing out the pins; it was not difficult to do. The suggestion being, don't worry to much about rigging cutters as driving the pins out is straight forward and works. No idea the size of boat.
 
I recall the text of some BOT scenario in an examination for masters where the foremast carried away and the mainmast topsle was swinging about and you had lost steerage due to rudder damage............what would you do!
 
Concerto said:
You should have tried my Hunter Formula 1, a Stephen Jones extreme race boat 22ft long, 8ft beam and lock down keel. With the mast down and the keel lifted ready to enter the launching/recovery trailer, that was very tippy and you had to be very careful moving anywhere on board.
Click to expand...

Oo-er. I can imagine. My Hunter 490 (someone give me some money and just take it away, please) is noticeably wobbly with the keel raised ... I've never been on board with the mast down too, but really wouldn't fancy it.
 
Read about Hammond Innes motoring his new steel boat to UK from Holland. No rig , and it had a nasty short roll. Very unpleasant.
The inertia of the mast matters.
 
DownWest said:
The inertia of the mast matters.
Click to expand...

Technically it's the (second) moment of inertia. My mast had a mass of 50kg and a length of 8m, giving it a moment of inertai about its centre of 267 kg m2, which gets an additional 1250 kg m2 when rotating around the metacentre, about 5m lower down. That's a total of about 1500 kg m2, which is about 2.5 times as much as the 500 kg keel had. It doesn't help with righting, of course, but the mast is generally much more important for dynamic roll resistance.
 
Re what to do when your mast falls over....

Not all your rigging will be under load... the bit that failed won't be for starters.
Most of it you can pop the pins quite easily.
If you have a roller furler best thing is a hacksaw above the furler drum
You will end up with only one loaded wire connecting rig to boat.
Hacksaw works on wire under load.

Don't ask how I know this.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

geem
First 6 months with no gas onboard
2 3
Replies
41
Views
1K
Baggywrinkle
Baggywrinkle

Share this page

Top