Penryn yacht dismasted.

S

simon barefoot

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Just down from Peapods café, approx. 18', blue hull, white cabin, 1/2 tide mud berth.
Some of the flappy thing got loose, which made the rest unravel. She was aground in the mud at the time, it took about 10 minutes to snap the mast clean off. As soon as there was water someone went out in a tender and got the mast and sail back aboard and lashed down.
Don't know if that's anyone on here?
 
Maybe the chap who bought some instrument from me today, he just bought the boat last week. Met at the quay where he was watching his vivacity with a sail lashed back to the mast and slowly coming undone. When I passed later 5 ish I saw the mast etc lashed down. Did not realise the mast had snapped.
 
Yeah thanks Simon, it was me who went out in the tender to lash it down.

We noticed that the head sail was flapping around as the tide went out, we had to sit on the quay and watch until the tide came in far enough to get out to her again. Just as I was on my way out, the sail came unfurled and the mast snapped :-( Just another 5 mins and the tide would've been high enough for me to sort it

Luckily the insurance policy started the day before so hopefully I will be covered.

Not the best start for a new boat :-(
 
Crikey. Not a great start, as you said. Looking at the Mylor webcam from up in the Mids it's hard to believe that it's blowing like that round the corner in Penryn.

I hope you can get her fixed up soon.
 
Typical, isn't it, it held on for ages, and went literally minutes before you could get to it.
Mind you, once that sail was out it was amazing how quick the mast failed. Imagine if you'd been at sea and trying to fix a leak or something....
Glad it's safe now.
 
sparerooms,

I can only go by the descriptions here, but - while I'm sure it doesn't feel like it - this may well be a blessing in disguise; a mast shouldn't fail like that...
 
I don't know more than the very basics about masts, but the boat was aground in a mud berth, bows into the wind, but as the sail unfurled the wind took it behind the mast. If you'd been able to do that afloat and hold a course she'd have been doing about 20kts!
I guess it failed because the backstays? that brace the mast were doing nothing to help.
You may be able to guess I'm more of a mobo-er, and I'm guessing at what bits of string and wire are called!!!
 
I don't think there was a problem with the mast or stays.

The main problem was that she was aground and with wind in the sail the only thing to give was the mast and because all the pressure was on the top of the mast it just had to snap.

A mast is designed with the stays to take equal pressure throughout the whole mast and not just the top.

At least nobody was hurt :-)
 
Depending how you go about the repairs, there's a chap called Barry Rogers who runs a couple of small mobile cranes. His number is 07889 739652. He's a lot cheaper than the big boys, decades of experience, based in Penryn/Mabe.
 
simon barefoot said:
Depending how you go about the repairs, there's a chap called Barry Rogers who runs a couple of small mobile cranes. His number is 07889 739652. He's a lot cheaper than the big boys, decades of experience, based in Penryn/Mabe.
Click to expand...

Thanks Simon
Im waiting to hear back from the insurance company. If they can't do anything then I will give him s call.
Cheers
 
If the boat is 18' I don't see the need for a crane.

sparerooms, if the pull of the sail is just on the top of the mast the load should be spread by the stays; think of a spinnaker pulling from the masthead ( and on the sheet & guy hopefully I admit but that's not always the case ).

It may be that I'm not understanding the situation fully, but I don't see why the mast should break.
 
Sorry I forgot to mention that the shackle at the foot of the roller furling sheared which meant the head sail with the roller furling was only attached at the top of the mast.

The roller furling normally acts as the forestay.
 
That explains a lot !

Beware it may have been the twisting of the roller furling which caused the shackle to fail, the load with the sail out being the last straw.

Good luck with your insurance and repairs; if looking for a new mast try Sailspar, they may be at the other side of the country in Kent but they're extremely helpful, good value too;

01206 251348

No connection.
 
sparerooms said:
Yeah thanks Simon, it was me who went out in the tender to lash it down.

We noticed that the head sail was flapping around as the tide went out, we had to sit on the quay and watch until the tide came in far enough to get out to her again. Just as I was on my way out, the sail came unfurled and the mast snapped :-( Just another 5 mins and the tide would've been high enough for me to sort it

Luckily the insurance policy started the day before so hopefully I will be covered.

Not the best start for a new boat :-(
Click to expand...

Look at it this way. You start off with a new mast....
 
I look after 84 moorings on the River Blackwater & it amazes me how silly some people are with the way they look after their boats
they just dump them on a mooring & leave them
We get an average of one mast per year falling down
One chap had his mast fall down, Re erected it & having no spare pins put a split pin through the shackle instead of a shackle pin
needless to say a couple of weeks later the whole lot went over the side - this time braking the mast
 
sparerooms said:
What are the riggers in mavsalvors like? Anyone used them before?
Click to expand...

That's David Carne and his son at Rigger-UK.

There is not a lot they don't know about rigging and they do the new boats at Rustlers, etc. Extremely competent.

If there was one criticism it's that they can be on the relaxed side of businesslike.
 
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