MacGregorSailors.com

After a nice afternoon of sailing in the South Bay of San Diego, we were motoring back into Sweetwater channel at 5 knots to pull out at the National City boat ramp after having dropped and bagged the main. I was at the helm, and had been tying up the loose ends of the sheets for a few minutes.



I turned my attention back to the channel, and motored for about thirty seconds when suddenly a channel marker sign rose above the bagged main—I was about three feet away from motoring straight into a concrete pylon. It had been completely obscured by the mast and the bagged main, and I was sitting at the helm and not moving around to see in front of me. It just hadn't really occurred to me that there could be something completely obscured for that long. I’d been motoring straight at it with no indication that it was there and without properly looking out.

I threw the helm over hard to port, and then when I was broadside to the pylon, I went hard over to starboard to get the stern out of the way. I missed the pylon by about three inches. Fortunately I had all boards down at the time, so handling was precise.

Unfortunately, my starboard upper stay snagged on the sign. Within a second, it twanged off the sign, but the damage was done: Both spreaders were mangled and the mast was seriously bent.





Fortunately, I didn't hit the pylon, none of the stays gave way, and the mast didn't fall (which would have been a disaster with me, my wife, and one of my daughters in the cockpit). Everything did what it was supposed to do.

Another silver lining is that I didn't replace my mast when I bent it in a mast fall three years ago, so I’m getting two mast accidents for the price of one.

Anyway, if you were worried about upgrading your forestay size, I wouldn't bother. The mast will give well before any of the stays will, as it should be.

We motored over to the boat ramp, and the admiral and I completely dismasted the boat in about 30 minutes. Of course another 26M was returning to the Marina and called over to ask what happened. Quite embarrassing.

Yipes! Sorry to see that -glad no one was hurt Matt. Your quick reactions saved it from being a more serious outcome.

I notice the wealth of data in your pictures. Looks like the lower stays remained intact and confined the bending to the upper part of the mast. The failure of the spreaders also allowed the stays some slack, cushioning the shock to them, and possibly preventing the mast from falling.

Seeing this I can't help but think that the use of rigid stainless steel spreaders discussed here lately might have changed the failure point to somewhere less desirable (like the stays) for these circumstances.

It'll be interesting to see which points in the rigging withstood the stress once you get to inspect it up close.

- Brian.

I think posting all the info we can about accidents is a very important function of this forum for exactly the reasons you state Brian. Decisions about what and how to upgrade the rig should be made with an understanding of how the rig behaves in various accidents.

I'd been considering replacing my mast with carbon, but now I'm worried about what would happen in a mast or stay strike. This strike is pretty much a best-case scenario, and with carbon spars I'm worried that a similar incident would have snapped the stay.

I would go the carbon mast unless you plan on making mast bashing a habit.

Allan

Glad to hear everyone is alright. I bet you had to put clean drawers on after. It sure is a good thing to post these kinds of things cause it gives me peace of mind that even though these boats are built cheaply they are also built to safe specs which alot of us are not privy to. I know now that I am going to leave my rigging as much as factory as possible. I know it is embarassing but thanks for sharing.

Was this the first time at this marina ? Thank god it wasn't a 20,000 volt power line. Someone could have been injured.

mastreb wrote:I'd been considering replacing my mast with carbon, but now I'm worried about what would happen in a mast or stay strike. This strike is pretty much a best-case scenario, and with carbon spars I'm worried that a similar incident would have snapped the stay.

Carbon seems like overkill for this boat. If it were a J-boat or something....

I would imagine that mast can be straightened without much trouble. Hard to tell from the photo, but it doesn't looked kinked or anything. New spreaders and you're good to go.

--Russ

Glad to hear All are ok

At least on a mac its a quick easy replacement and not too expensive. On a larger boat it would be a major ordeal. The biggest hit is the pride

I threw the helm over hard to port, and then when I was broadside to the pylon, I went hard over to starboard to get the stern out of the way. I missed the pylon by about three inches. Fortunately I had all boards down at the time, so handling was precise.

Unfortunately, my starboard upper stay snagged on the sign. Within a second, it twanged off the sign, but the damage was done: Both spreaders were mangled and the mast was seriously bent.

That is basically the exact thing that happened when we popped ours. Caught the corner of a marker but not the post. On the X the mast is thinner and doesn't rotate, so soon as the spreader had some leverage on it the mast twisted and down she went. Hardly took any force, the boat momentum barely changed. Didn't even scratch the paint on the darn marker Now I am overly aware of just how far out the sidestays are when around tall pylons and trees.

Recommend you take the mast to a rigger. This looks like a bend, not a break and someone that knows how to manipulate these extrusions (careful application of heat and force) may be able to straighten the mast. Even some breaks can be repaired successfully. While masts are not terribly expensive, shipping them can greatly increase the price - therefor, I would if it were my boat, I would look into salvaging the mast.
And yeah, I will stay with the aluminium spreaders as a really cheap sacrificial part of a generally expensive system.

In the olden days it was a given that if you had a trailerable boat you were gonna replace the mast sooner or later but usually the mast damage is caused by light poles in the parking lot at the launch ramp.

I suspect there is a lot more mast bending going on out there than we hear about.

raycarlson wrote:Was this the first time at this marina ? Thank god it wasn't a 20,000 volt power line. Someone could have been injured.

No, I've gone up and down this channel dozens of times. It's our Marina and our usual ramp. I'd even looked at the very channel marker I hit twice prior to accidentally lining up on it. I'm still trying to figure out how I possibly lost track of it.

Matt

Lets move it back tonight....channel marker trolls....

Catigale is moving the channel markers around again as a joke. The last time he did this was on a construction site - he pulled out all the survey stakes and moved them all by just a few inches the day before they poured the concrete foundation for a huge boat house. At least Mastreb only got a bent mast - Highlander had to tear down his entire boat house and replace the foundation.

(just kidding)