anybody ever been iced out of their mac ?

[vizwhiz]

Snow...ice...hmmm...
I know I've heard those words before.
Think...think...c'mon...i know i know what those are!

[yukonbob]

it'll be funnier when I see snow on palm trees one of these days

[Highlander]

Yep it's a real bummer happened to me last Aug, when my ice kooler/fridge packed it in , lucky enough though their was a good supply of ice @ the marina . So the Scotch on the Rocks Agenda was able to continue on for the rest of the week , also kept the beer cold ! Too

J

[Catigale]

anybody ever been iced out of their mac?

Ummm....yes...me...for the last *&%$$ three months. I am still trying to figure out why anyone started a city here, and what I am doing still living here!

I wondered too, until I go to one of your restaurants - food and service to die for. The French experience, without the attitude...

[prishi]

So we've just been visited by Pax in the NY Region and multiple sessions of snow - sleet - rain - snow caused a lot of iceing on my tarp that had been thrown over the boat, supported by the Mast, forming a shallow tent.

I was planning on raising the lifeline staunchions using plastic pipes and a higher ridge for the tarp, but pushed that project for 'next year'!

My is stowed alongside my bedroom and I usually have been consistent to broom/shovel off snow from the tarp but lately, it has been a challenge. Well, today I decided to do what I was supposed to do two days back and was horrified to see that the bulk of ice was huge. My tarp was so loaded with ice (imagine large 4 feet long puddles of ice almost 5 inches deep in the center and rising up fore-and-aft as long bowls), on each side of the mast. And two in the forward section, about 3 feet long. They were very heavy. The mast looked completely bent and probably broken in the middle!

I cursed the idea of that tarp - looked very neat and smartly packed in late fall/early winter, but now with the ice, this was a rotten idea. I got my knife and cut off the tarp - it was like opening a gift package, and I tore the tarp completely. Ultimately I was able to free the ice from the boat and noticed the Mast started to rise up as I shoveled off the packed snow/ice from top of it. Removing all the snow seems to have made the Mast come back to the straight line it should be in, but I did see it was bent enough to be resting on the deck of the boat. I remember, in the fall it looked like this:
http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/33449

So, Questions:
1. Even though the Mast has come back to a straight line, do I expect to see hair-line cracks when I do an inspection in early Spring?
2. If there is no visible damage, should I still get it surveyed?
3. If all seems well, do I just set the boat up in the Spring, launch and forget about it, or is it time for Mast-shopping?

Thanks!
And Enjoy the season.

[bahama bound]

This big yellow strange orb came out and seemed to warm us all up.! We don't know how long this big warm yellow orb will be in the sky ! So we are going to take advantage of it and head for Florida while its high in the sky !

[bahama bound]

I have straightened several mast .some between two trees .as long as they were not kinked they were fine .I even tweak them by adjusting the stays .a lot of the stress is carried through the stays .I never had a problem with mast that we bent back in to shape .

[mastreb]

Your mast is fine. Even if it had a residual bend, the spreaders will straighten it when you raise it. Microcracks only occur because of severe short radius bends.

The rule for minor bends is pretty simple: If, when raised, the mast appears straight to your eye, you're fine.

--Matt the mast bending expert

[seahouse]

Prishi -

Two of the things considered when assessing failure in aluminum are the amount of the load (and deflection), and the number of times (cycles) the load was applied. We can assume the temperature and the time effects are negligible.

The mast is extruded from a high quality aluminum alloy, and heat treated to the highest tensile strength, if I recall correctly 6061 (the alloy) and T-6 (the temper), so it can be subjected to a considerable load before it bends, and stays bent (or “yields”).

And unlike steel, aluminum has a quality that it can withstand only a finite number of cycles at a given stress level before it starts to fatigue and weaken -but with this you are well below that so far at one cycle!

The fact that the mast has returned to being straight means that you did not reach the yield point of the aluminum – that's as good as it gets.

It's never a bad idea to inspect the mast at the beginning of each season (it's easy when it's down), but unless there was pre-existing damage, you can rest easy; you should not expect to see any signs of fatigue as a result of this (or even a few more like it) episode.

The mast is quite durable, but pay close attention to the areas around holes drilled in the mast – when cracks start it is most likely to be in these areas, and from a lot more abuse than you just described.

-Brian.

ps. if you do see something that concerns you, post a picture here.

[seahouse]

Yes Prishi– you can take it from Matt – he is experienced with mast bends. He gets “the bends” without even going diving.

[Starscream]

So we've just been visited by Pax in the NY Region and multiple sessions of snow - sleet - rain - snow caused a lot of iceing on my tarp that had been thrown over the boat, supported by the Mast, forming a shallow tent.

I was planning on raising the lifeline staunchions using plastic pipes and a higher ridge for the tarp, but pushed that project for 'next year'!

My is stowed alongside my bedroom and I usually have been consistent to broom/shovel off snow from the tarp but lately, it has been a challenge. Well, today I decided to do what I was supposed to do two days back and was horrified to see that the bulk of ice was huge. My tarp was so loaded with ice (imagine large 4 feet long puddles of ice almost 5 inches deep in the center and rising up fore-and-aft as long bowls), on each side of the mast. And two in the forward section, about 3 feet long. They were very heavy. The mast looked completely bent and probably broken in the middle!

I cursed the idea of that tarp - looked very neat and smartly packed in late fall/early winter, but now with the ice, this was a rotten idea. I got my knife and cut off the tarp - it was like opening a gift package, and I tore the tarp completely. Ultimately I was able to free the ice from the boat and noticed the Mast started to rise up as I shoveled off the packed snow/ice from top of it. Removing all the snow seems to have made the Mast come back to the straight line it should be in, but I did see it was bent enough to be resting on the deck of the boat. I remember, in the fall it looked like this:
http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/33449

So, Questions:
1. Even though the Mast has come back to a straight line, do I expect to see hair-line cracks when I do an inspection in early Spring?
2. If there is no visible damage, should I still get it surveyed?
3. If all seems well, do I just set the boat up in the Spring, launch and forget about it, or is it time for Mast-shopping?

Thanks!
And Enjoy the season.

I had a similar experience with ice buildup the first time I tarped for the winter. You can't really stop small pockets from forming in the tarp and during a freeze/thaw cycle a little ice will form and build up in them, making bigger pockets for more ice and so on. The only way to safely tarp for the winter is to go out after each snowstorm and clean off the entire boat. I was lucky that first year since I am a worrier I checked it relatively often and found the ice buildup before it did any damage, but man, was it heavy and hard to get off.

[prishi]

Hey folks,
I just wanted to close off the issue about the snow-laden Mast.
Now when all is melted, it is back to its original shape! Looks as good as it was in the Fall. A closer inspection will be done in the Spring, but all seems well.
Thank you for all the Experience and the Technology thrown in on this thread here to put me at ease before I actually saw the Rising of the Mast!

Prateek Rishi

[BOAT]

Ice? I ran out of ice once for the beer. It could have been a crisis but we had a couple of bottles of wine on board.

Snow . . . snow . ? What exactly is that again?

[vizwhiz]

http://youtu.be/CH2KGboA35c