Major_Clanger
Well-known member
Just home from another delivery, this time an Oyster 66 from Ipswich to Alicante.
We'd spent a couple of days weather-bound in Dartmouth but a window appeared for Biscay, so we headed off in to a bumpy, Moonless night. About 10nm south of Prawle Point the mast suddenly started making a groaning noise, accompanied by the headstays going slack.... The backstay ram had failed, leaving us in a pickle as the boat has parallel spreaders so, in affect, there was little holding the rig up. We rigged a preventer double-quick after managing to pump a little pressure back in to the ram. Put the boat through the wind, losing sail as we did, and headed back in to Dartmouth.
I made a call to Allspars in Plymouth after diagnosing seal failure on the ram. David Barden and his team couldn't have been more helpful. Bearing in mind it was a Friday, they stopped all current work and came to collect the failed ram from us. It was rebuilt the same day and left on test over the week-end. They duly delivered it back Monday morning ready to be fitted and the boat-side Navtec panel just needed a quick bleed through. We left again the following morning and the rest of the trip was uneventful.
Just wanted to publicly thank Allspars, Plymouth and to highly recommend their services. Top job!
We'd spent a couple of days weather-bound in Dartmouth but a window appeared for Biscay, so we headed off in to a bumpy, Moonless night. About 10nm south of Prawle Point the mast suddenly started making a groaning noise, accompanied by the headstays going slack.... The backstay ram had failed, leaving us in a pickle as the boat has parallel spreaders so, in affect, there was little holding the rig up. We rigged a preventer double-quick after managing to pump a little pressure back in to the ram. Put the boat through the wind, losing sail as we did, and headed back in to Dartmouth.
I made a call to Allspars in Plymouth after diagnosing seal failure on the ram. David Barden and his team couldn't have been more helpful. Bearing in mind it was a Friday, they stopped all current work and came to collect the failed ram from us. It was rebuilt the same day and left on test over the week-end. They duly delivered it back Monday morning ready to be fitted and the boat-side Navtec panel just needed a quick bleed through. We left again the following morning and the rest of the trip was uneventful.
Just wanted to publicly thank Allspars, Plymouth and to highly recommend their services. Top job!
