A Bad Day Sailing?

--Blogpost written by Bob

First let me be clear that I didn't have a bad day sailing--it was one of our dock neighbors.   I hope that no one was hurt during the incident.  This is the first time in my life that I have actually seen a dismasted sailboat up close and I thought it would make an interesting blogpost.

The boat, a Catalina 27, was dismasted during 40 to 50 knot winds
and now sits in its slip with all the rigging, sails, and
broken mast laying on the deck

I can't imagine being on deck when all the rigging came crashing down.
I'm sure that it didn't land in a pile as it now sits--I'm sure some
of it went in the water and had to be hauled on deck.

The dismasting occurred while the jib was furled since
it is laying on deck in the furled condition.

It took a lot of force to fracture an aluminum mast in this manner!

It is difficult to imagine how and why the tiller broke--probably from the 
falling mast or boom. This means that after the incident, not only 
were the sails inoperable but there was no steerage except 
what the electric outboard motor could provide.

It's clear that the chain plates that failed had been leaking for a while
since there is a big glob of caulking where the shrouds
were previously attached (at red arrows).

This is a grim reminder about the forces of nature and the need to be vigilant when it comes to weather and boat maintenance.   Let's hope that all our future sailing days are good ones!  Thanks for following our blog!