Starting out sailing... Mast broke in storm Amy - any help please?

[Chiara’s slave]

Possibly the same reason as spaghetti?

That’s an ingenious explanation, but I’d bet on it being corrosion at rigging attachment points. Could well have been the original cause, rather than slack rigging.

 

[Wansworth]

Time has shown the criticism of the Westerly’s to be well wrong and the smaller give good value

 

[Dellquay13]

deleted in the light of later posts

 

[Dellquay13]

Got the mast pulled out the water today. It was in 3 separate 8 foot sections. What sort of event must have happened to split it into 3. Can't see hitting the water do that sort of damage.

If it broke above the spreaders first, the slack forestay and backstay wouldn’t be any use in helping the lower shrouds (and babystay?) keep the rest up for long, having the top 3rd swinging around in a gale would soon snap the rest, then there’s whatever happened underwater.