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Dismasted at sea: What to do during and after a dismasting

September 30, 2019

Losing your mast is one of the worst things that can happen during an ocean crossing – bluewater veteran Susan Glenny explains what to do after a dismasting

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When the Hallberg Rassy 46 Lykke dismasted during the 2017 ARC, the spinnaker pole was drafted in as a jury mast to support a light and VHF aerial

During the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race , my yacht Olympia ’ s Tigress , a Beneteau First 40, lost her rig through a simple split pin failure.

We were 40 miles offshore at the time, with a trained but inexperienced charter crew on board. It was blowing a Force 6 and the middle the night. The following are some of the lessons we learned from the incident.

Just before midnight I went down below after my watch, having just come off the helm. I heard shouting from on deck and the first mate calling: “Sue, get on deck now – the shroud’s gone!”

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Olympia’s Tigress setting off in the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race, before the rig failure. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

I rushed to get my lifejacket back on and pulled myself up the companionway. Looking out I could see that the V1 rod from the port side of the rig had detached completely at the first spreader. The rod was still attached at the deck chainplate but was arched over and dragging in the water. I turned to the helmsperson and shouted: “Whatever you do, don’t tack.”

We were upwind on starboard tack beating into a moderate to rough seaway, and if you were looking at the rig fully loaded from the starboard side you could have been fooled into thinking all was well.

But this was just the start – it would be ten hours before yacht and crew made it safely to land. For myself and four other crew, who’d just spent a full four hours on watch on deck, this was to be particularly exhausting.

Article continues below…

running-aground-nada-rio-minho-anchored-off-credit-nigel-calder

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My first plan was to try to keep the yacht stable under sail as we were closer towards land – and potential rescue – on the starboard tack. I called Falmouth Coastguard from our satellite phone and explained that we had a major rig failure; they contacted the Irish Coast Guard on our behalf. They also advised us to have our EPRIB on deck.

From midnight until around 0130 we sailed on starboard tack to get closer to land, but progressively got knocked and were no longer laying the Irish coast.

We managed to sail about 15 miles further inshore before, as predicted, the wind began to back. Soon we were no longer laying even the Fastnet Rock.

dismasting-advice-olympia-tigress-fastnet-race-2017

Safe after a lifeboat tow back to port, but Olympia’s Tigress had lost her mast above the first set of spreaders

At this point, around 0200, and two hours after we first noticed the issue with the shroud, I decided we needed to down sails and be prepared for whatever was going to happen to us next.

At first we tried to stabilise the rig using halyards as we motored towards Kinsale, but it quickly became apparent how completely unstable the whole rig was.

The flexibility of the aluminium mast was quite terrifying and in the rolling seaway the top of the mast was swaying up to 3-4m from the centreline. This caused ricocheting of the stabilising halyards from the deck and the noise was deafening, like a huge recoiling spring.

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The Class 40 Phor-ty lost her rig during the same race – these aerial shots reveal the dangerous tangle of lines, rigging, sail and mast across the deck and cockpit. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

I was extremely concerned about having anyone on deck because it was apparent that the rig was eventually going to come down.

Having no windward force on the rig, as you would do when sailing, meant the rig’s movement and which way it would fall was also totally unpredictable.

Thunderbolt crack

I sent all the crew below and slowed the boat speed to 3 knots. We were in contact with the Irish Coast Guard by satellite phone and limited VHF.

The Courtmacsherry lifeboat had been mustered in case the broken spar holed the boat.

At 0420 the yacht rolled violently to port in a big wave and, as we rolled back to starboard, the mast cracked with a sound like a thunderbolt.

It fractured cleanly at the first spreader level and fell to the starboard side, taking out all of the guard wires and damaging the deck.

The standing rigging on the port side was already compromised but the rig remained attached by the starboard V1 rod, the forestay rod and the backstay, which was Dyneema.

What followed was an extremely stressful 25 minutes of cutting the rig away, trying various methods, because you never knew what was going to work until it did.

The crew worked in groups on different parts of the rig, and we had the liferaft prepared to deploy in case the spar ruptured the hull.

The second mate had climbed what remained of the rig to cut the wires from the mast. What I remember most clearly is that absolutely everyone on board was waiting for instruction on what to do next.

The hardest part was the determination required to sever the highly loaded and arched rod rigging. The V1, with the rest of the rig, was moving up and down with the seaway and it felt like a miracle when we managed to saw it off – it was just brute force sawing with a hacksaw that got rid of it.

A hacksaw should deal with a felled forestay – but be aware that rigging under tension can whiplash unpredictably when cut

Next we removed the forestay by unscrewing the bottle screws and lastly freed the backstay.

Five-hour ordeal

At 0445 the rig sank. There was silence on board; no one said a thing for at least a minute. We were all in total and utter shock after a five-hour ordeal.

I first established if everyone was OK. Our youngest crew member had a metal shard in his eye resulting from the flying sparks of an angle grinder, while my second mate had taken a serious blow in the face as he detached the forestay from its fixing; the rod had ricocheted into his face. So we began tending to the injuries.

By 0500 the RNLI lifeboat arrived on the scene. They first checked with us that the rig had sunk, and we communicated with them through visual signalling and limited coms on a handheld VHF radio – the fixed VHF antenna went with the mast.

At this stage we were still 25 miles offshore – we were happy to motor to Kinsale or Cork but the lifeboat crew deemed it better to tow us given our lack of VHF and associated electrics. The stability of the yacht was also severely compromised without the mast.

It took four hours under tow to reach Ireland from 0530-0930. My first mate, Cath, and I alternated the helming watches for this period and allowed the crew to sleep.

I remember it being bitterly cold and us both trying to shield each other in turn from the wind exposure being generated from the fast tow – the cold was possibly exacerbated by the fact we were both tired and utterly burnt out.

Many thanks to my amazing crew that night: Cath, Willy, Felix, Simon, Gina, Matt, Conor, Fiona and Luke. Each and every one of them played a vital role in bringing our vessel back to land.

Many thanks also to Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre at Falmouth, the Irish Coast Guard and the Courtmacsherry lifeboat and crew.

What to do after a rig loss

Communicate the situation as early as possible (in our case we were able to do this before the rig came down) with a Pan Pan call to a coastal radio station. This can either be through satellite phone or VHF radio, but remember as soon as you lose your rig you are also likely to lose your VHF aerial and radio communications. For us having a satellite phone was key.
If you have spars in the water, get your liferaft and grab bags ready to deploy within 15 seconds. Have all the crew in lifejackets and waterproofs if they are not already.
It’s likely that even after failure the rig will still be attached to the vessel via three standing rig points. For example, the port side failed on Olympia ’ s Tigress , but the rig was still attached via the forestay, the backstay and the starboard V1 rod. As soon as the rig has broken, split the crew into three teams to work on each area, and make sure you have three sets of whatever cutting gear you are using. You don’t want a jagged mast hanging around in the water next to you any longer than necessary. Nor do you want to successfully cut two points away, only to find the sinking rig dragging your bow down at the forestay (yes, that happened to us).
On a safety checklist you may have to tick a box saying you have tested your rig cutting gear on a piece of material similar to that in your rig. However, you also need to ask yourself whether the cutting gear will work in the same way when the rig, rods or Dyform wires are moving up and down in a rough seaway, all in different sync to the boat’s movement. We’d always thought that having an angle grinder was the answer to cut away all rigging but we discovered we were wrong. With the rig moving it was very difficult to cut a groove in the rod. It also produced sparking and metal files, one of which flew into a crew member’s eye.
Carry multiple pairs of goggles in your rig-cutting bag to prevent eye injury.
Carry multiple cutting methods. We found that with rods the only thing that worked was brute force, cutting a groove with a standard high quality hacksaw, we had replacement blades and three hacksaws so were able to have new blades and saws ready rapidly, so as to have no delays in the cutting.
Before heading to sea, think through any other methods you could use to detach stays and shrouds, for example removing pins or unscrewing bottle screws. It didn’t apply in our case, but I did realise the complexity that would be added by having a furling headsail system. Make sure you are familiar with how to remove a furler from the deck and have the tools on board to do this.
If you have a period of time – as we did – with an unstable mast that has lost its structural integrity, use halyards to triangulate it to strong points on the deck. This might be more effective in a calm sea but for us the pre-break movement in the rig at the top (4-5m of sideways flexing) was scarily powerful. Before the mast broke, the ricocheting of the halyards thanks to the enormous flexing of the rig caused damage to the glassfibre at the deck mountings.
Protect crew wherever possible; if the mast is going to come down there is less risk in having one person on deck than full crew. I stayed on deck alone while we attempted to motor towards Cork. The crew stayed ready below, formulating a plan for cutting the rig and communicating with the coastguard.
When the rig comes down, if you can be sure the prop is free of lines try to manoeuvre the yacht under engine so the rig is down-sea and away from the hull.

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The Hallberg-Rassy 46 Lykke dismasted during the 2017 ARC. Even after the rig had been cut away, the damaged guardrails, stanchions and metalwork create a hazard on deck. Photo: Stephan Mühlhause

Dos and Don’ts

Do: Preserve everything you can – boom, lines, sails, blocks, clips etc. Rig loss claims are huge: ours was a £55,000 claim which didn’t include the boom or sails that we’d managed to conserve. Much more and the insurer would have considered writing the boat off.
Do: Write an extensive plan of how you would get rid of your rig and talk through this plan in your crew safety briefing. Preassign roles to each person.
Don’t: Be reticent in making rescue organisations aware of the situation. If a broken rig spar is going to go through the hull then help being on the way is better earlier than later.

Can you use rig cutting tools with one hand or will you be unable to hold on? Hydraulic cutters may be easiest.

Rig cutting options

Hacksaws and multiple spare blades – highly effective on rod rigging
High quality bolt croppers – effective on Dyform, but not effective on rods
Hydraulic bolt croppers – effective on Dyform and rods
Explosive rod and spar breakers – difficult to obtain in the UK
High quality angle grinder – potentially useful for cutting rods and Dyform, but were found to be quickly effective on sails and Dyneema!
Sharp, deck mounted safety knives
High quality scissors

About the author

Susan Glenny is a commercial Ocean Yachtmaster and is school principal of Tigress Sport Sailing. She has skippered four transatlantic races and many offshore and inshore events in the Caribbean, Europe and Mediterranean. She leads Team Tigress and The Sirens Racing.

Dismasted at Sea: What To Do (During & After)

Last Updated by

Capt Chris German

June 15, 2022

There are few incidents at sea that are scarier than a dismasting. The best solution to a Dismasting is to avoid it in the first place, but if you do drop the stick, point your boat towards home, make sure everyone is safe and do the best you can.

I have been fortunate enough to experience a great many things at sea. I have seen the green flash, I have witnessed and sailed through a waterspout and I have swam with dolphins in the currents of the Gulf Stream. But one experience, I can happily say, I have avoided, is the experience of being dismasted at sea.

Whether your boat falls in the class of dinghy or bluewater, the event of having a mast fall down while you sit beneath it has to be one of the scariest experiences one might ever experience underway. I have witnessed it happen twice from afar and both times it looked like a harrowing experience to say the least. I have also seen the aftermath of dismastings multiple times. And the one takeaway I can offer from each and every dismasting I have seen is, it's just as avoidable, as it was scary.

Table of contents

A first hand encounter

My first dismasting was on a tiny hunter 21 in Pequot Harbor during tropical Storm Ernesto. The boat was riding high on the mooring during the early hours of the storm but the owner had made a critical error in leaving the roller furled jib up for the storm. By mid morning the winds were topping a steady 50 out of the southwest and the boat was heading north east with moorings tied to its bow and stern. My manager, Captain Jeff Engborg, a long time captain and master of all things mechanical, eyed the critical failure from the deck of the club house saying, “the jib sheet is coming out”. The jib sheets which were wound tightly around the furled jib, began wiggling loose. Before he could utter another word, a gust topping 70 miles per hour came screaming in from the Sound and the unfurled jib on a dead down wind run. It snagged only briefly on the shroud before billowing out over the bow pulpit and folding the mast in half.

I was fifty yards from that boat but the violence of the mast falling has stayed with me ever since.

The next one I saw was on the water just off Seaside Park in Bridgeport, CT. It was a cool October morning in New England and the Catalina Association was hosting a rally of boats in Black Rock Harbor. The winds blew a steady 35 out of the east and the fleet was rounding the point on the way in, having decided that the weather was a bit too much for the aged fleet of cruisers. Just as this one particular boat, a 35 footer from the mid 80’s, came from behind the lee of the lighthouse, a gust ripped the mast from their deck and plopped it sloppily on the leeward side of the vessel, shredding the main and tangling the standing rigging like a slinky. The boat stopped hard, as if it had an emergency break, and the owners popped their heads up from beneath the carnage like stunned meerkats on the Serengeti. I didn’t see what they did next but instead high-tailed it back to the dock fearing my old boat would be next.

The best strategy is avoidance

In both of those previous cases, proper planning and maintenance would have been an excellent alternative to dismasting. In the case of the Hunter, the owner should have removed all the sails from the boat prior to the storm, or tied a pile of lines on to the jib rather than just wrapping the sheets. As they say in the USCG, “if you can’t tie a knot, tie a lot”

In the case of the Catalina, planning should have included reading a weather report and turning back before the winds got too heavy. The owner failed to recognize that their boat was no spring chicken and that the conditions were too much for his 20 year old Catalina.

I have been told by one of the best surveyors I have ever worked with, Wayne Canning of Ocean Navigator Magazine, that stainless steel rigging has a lifespan of 10 years. After that time, a rig’s chance of coming down increases exponentially without a serious inspection of the rig and replacement. Micro cracks can form in the wire rope of shrouds and stays, as well as in chain plates and turnbuckles. These cracks can only be seen by high tech imaging which most riggers can do for you or you can send them out to an independent lab to be examined yourself. Some riggers will reuse parts of the rig that are free of defect to save some cash, but after 10 years and the expense of pulling the stick, removing the parts, shipping them to a lab and paying for the test, maybe it’s better if you just replace everything.

Wire rope is actually quite affordable and doing the labor yourself can save a ton of money. But if a $20,000 mast comes down because you made a mistake there will be no one else to blame but you.

After the mast has fallen

Witnessing the violence of two masts dropping has convinced me that I have no interest in ever experiencing a dismasting first hand. But just in case, I have always carried a sharp knife, a set of bolt cutters, a first aid kit and a flask of rum on board if it ever did happen. The knife would be used to cut running rigging from the boat should I ever need to and the bolt cutters would be used to part standing rigging and mast wreckage from the decks. The first aid kit would hopefully be useful if my head wasn’t separated from my body, and if and when it ever did happen (and I just happened to survive), I would need a shot rum almost immediately following.

The best way to survive a dismasting is to avoid it in the first place. But once the rig is down in part or full, your attention immediately should come to survival. A rig below the hull can foul rudders and propellers and act as a sea anchor for the boat. With no mast, a sailboat becomes either a vessel not under command or a power boat, so if you have a motor, protect it cause that will be your last option as you watch your rig sink slowly into the great abyss.

If you're lucky, as both the dismasted boats I saw, you will be close to port and can either limp home or get a tow. But if you are out to sea and your mast falls (and no one gets injured badly), will anyone hear it? Your obligation is to use what equipment you do have left, to get your boat and yourself back home safely. If it is only part of the mast that must be cast off, use what is left on board to jury rig a sail and get yourself back to the nearest shipping channel or port of call asap. Depending on your distance from shore, use of your motor may be limited to a few hours at a time to conserve fuel and charge the batteries. I would consider a dismasting as a distress qualifying event and would hail a “mayday” as quickly as possible but that is up to you as the skipper.

If you do go, make sure you come home

Whether you have experienced a dismasting or simply seen the aftermath, you cannot help but walk away with a sour feel in the pit of your stomach. There is no more violent yet avoidable situation that I can think of at sea. Short of Captain Aubrey losing his mizzen while rounding Cape Horn in Master and Commander, I cannot think of any excuse a modern sailor might have to be out there when conditions favor a dismasting. There is no reason to push one’s vessel to the point of dismasting and I think each example I have given demonstrates that point. Some pre-planning and good maintenance can avoid all but the worst of dismasting conditions. But if you do find yourself in peril and the unthinkable happens, remember the welfare of your crew and that your primary objective is to return your ship to port, even if it is a bit shorter than when you left. Thanks for reading and do good, have fun and sail far.

Capt Chris German is a life long sailor and licensed captain who has taught thousands to sail over the last 20 years. In 2007, he founded a US Sailing-based community sailing school in Bridgeport, CT for inner city youth and families. When Hurricane Sandy forced him to abandon those efforts, he moved to North Carolina where he set out to share this love for broadcasting and sailing with a growing web-based television audience through The Charted Life Television Network.

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All about marine navigation, sailing tips and maxsea updates, dismasting – what to do if it happens.

Dismasting is one of the worst emergencies that can happen to a sailboat, and if the mast is not managed very quickly the boat may sink as a result.

MaxSea is a technical partner of the MACIF Racing Team skippered by François Gabart and Michel Desjoyeaux. During this year’s Transat Jacques Vabre race, the MACIF boat dismasted, proving that it can happen to anyone at any time.

This week, we provide tips and advice on how to prepare for dismasting, and what to do if it happens.

MACIF skippers François Gabart and Michel Desjoyeaux

There’s always the risk of dismasting, especially when you encounter a bad storm while out at sea. This can be due to a rigging failure or extreme conditions. However, dismasting can also occur without a storm as a result of a structural weakness in the masthead or inside a turnbuckle.

It’s essential for owners of cruising sailboats of any size to be prepared for a possible dismasting and to have the right equipment and knowledge to act immediately.

All experienced sailors know they should have equipment on board to cut the mast free as quickly as possible. You just need to determine what the right equipment is for your sailboat and your budget?

Usually only a sharp sailor’s knife is needed. In order to cut the halyards and other lines joining the boat to the mast, you will only need a sharp sailor’s knife. It is more difficult to cut through the stays and shrouds, which are made of steel wire or rod. To do this, you will need special equipment.

The typical equipment used are hacksaws, bolt cutters, and pin removal gear.

Hacksaw: Very well suited to small to medium sailboats. However, coastal sailors should have another type of equipment on board too, to be prepared for all situations.

The hacksaw is undoubtedly the cheapest emergency de-rigging device. However, sawing is much slower than other methods, with greater risk for hull damage when time is of the essence. It is also impossible to saw through rod rigging, and very difficult to saw steel wire unless it is held still and tensioned, which is almost impossible for one person to do on a pitching deck.

Tip: If you do depend on a hacksaw, use a tungsten carbide blade and have a couple of spares.

Bolt cutters: Manual cutters are the traditional first choice for cutting wire (not rod) rigging. They cost more than a hacksaw, often more than $200) but will work on rigging that is either slack or under tension from the mast.

Get cutters larger than what you think you can get by with. The manufacturer may promise one size cuts up to 3/8 wire, for example, but 3/8 stainless steel marine rigging wire may be much stronger than what the manufacturer tested.
Try them out on wire as large as your rigging to be sure you can trust them in an emergency.
Add a lanyard you can slip around your wrist – it’s easy to drop them overboard when you’re working on a pitching deck.

Hydraulic bolt cutters do a great job fast but cost upwards of $1200; unlike regular bold cutters, they work on rod rigging.

Pin removal: On most boats the turnbuckles at the bottom of shrouds and stays are connected to chainplate fittings with a clevis pin kept in place with a cotter pin or ring. Some sailors choose to release the rigging by removing the pin rather than sawing or cutting the rigging. The biggest issue is that clevis pins are very difficult to remove when under significant tension, and the process can be almost unmanageable on a pitching deck.

Your de-rigging kit should include strong pliers for quick removal of the cotter pin or ring. (Many riggers recommend not opening the ends of cotter pins more than 20 degrees so that they can be removed more easily.)Use a mallet or hammer along with a center punch or similar tool to pound the pin back out through its hole. Don’t trust a screwdriver for this, and make sure your chosen tool is small enough in diameter to follow the pin through the hole, because otherwise it may jam halfway.
Since clevis pins are easily and quickly removed when not under tension, first release the shrouds and stays that are loose, saving the one(s) under tension for last. (Unless, of course, the end of the mast in its current position is already threatening to hole the hull.)
Be aware that if the turnbuckle is bent or heavily torqued to one side, the pin may have so much pressure on it that it won’t come out. Have at least a good hacksaw handy just in case.

Hopefully these tips will be useful to you. Remember that it’s very important to be prepared for dismasting. Having a plan could save you life!

How do you manage your sailboat when dismasting?

Accidental dismasting can quickly degenerate into a shipwreck if it is not well managed, or if bad luck gets in the way. It is better to have thought about it beforehand so as not to find yourself unprepared in the situation. Here's how this scenario can unfold.

This winter the Class 40 Crosscall was overturned by a wave off the Azores . The boat made a 360 and the mast pierced the cockpit creating a huge waterway . The boat remained between two waters for 11 hours before the two skippers were rescued by a Portuguese Navy helicopter.

Prevent to avoid dismasting

In order for a sailboat to dismast, one part of the rigging must be loose. When turning over, the pressure on the rotating mast underwater is such that it has a high chance of breaking. However, the majority of dismastings are due to broken cables or crimps. Insurers also advise, when not required, to change the standing rigging every ten years.

In addition to the crimps, the forestay, which is hidden by the furling tube, should be regularly monitored. In case of malfunction of the reefing-furling system, it can become dislodged. At the very least, a visual inspection of the rigging at the beginning and end of the season remains a good means of prevention.

What to do if the sailboat still dismasts?

The first thing to do is to ensure the safety of the crew . If no one is injured, you will not have to take any additional risks, as you will not be able to recover a man overboard with a mast hanging in the water. If you are within VHF range of the shoreline, try to notify rescue. Be careful, often the VHF antenna is placed at the masthead on a sailboat . It is very likely to be damaged. Call instead with a portable VHF . Notify CROSS of your situation. Then it's the safety of the boat that has to be taken care of.

Usually the mast breaks at one spreader stage. It is important to avoid at all costs that pieces of the mast ram against the hull. Depending on the sea state, you may therefore be forced to free the entire rigging and let it sink. Also resist the urge to start the engine as there is a high risk of getting a piece of the propeller.

Cut the shrouds that hold the mast to the deck with a pair of guy wire cutters or, failing that, a hacksaw. A good knife is often useful for cutting the genoa which is wound on the forestay. This will allow you to reach the furling line, which you will then have to cut as well. In the water the mast will act on the boat like a floating anchor , stabilising the daggerboard.

If you decide to retrieve it, secure it as soon as possible using the halyards and hoist it using the winches. Be aware that it can be very difficult to get it back on board with the sails still furled. Every situation is different, it will be up to you to decide whether it is worth saving all or part of the rigging and sails.

Once the housework is done, you can try to go home on your own, or wait for help if this is not possible.

What To Do In A Dismasting And How To Prepare

Having recently been dismasted off the NW coast of France , I have been asked lots of questions from fellow sailors about what it was like; what we would do differently; what worked well; what didn’t; how could they prepare. To address some of these questions and hopefully help you prepare should you ever been unfortunate enough to find yourself in this situation, I’ve covered all of the questions I’ve been asked below. If you have any other specific questions, please do leave a question in the comments below, or contact me.

< Read the full story of our dismasting >

No. If you’ve read any of my blog posts before, you’ll know I am of the belief that fear has no place on a sailing boat. You need to be mentally strong, and mentally prepared, and then no matter what the situation, you will be able to stay calm and rational. Two essential ingredients for a positive outcome in an emergency or ‘intense’ situation.

My advice to all sailors before putting to sea is, think through the risks, prepare for them physically and also mentally. What would you do in X situation? What would you do if Y happened? Put in place everything you can to both prevent it, but also to help make life easier if the situation does occur. If you’ve already thought it through, or envisaged it, then you’ll be one step ahead, and you’ll be calmer.

Equally if you are the skipper, or you are an experienced crew member, people will look to you for that ‘ calm ‘. If they’re scared, and they see that you’re calm it will help keep them calm. If they look to you and you’re riddled with fear, then they too will panic, and then poor decisions are made, chaos ensues, and frankly it can be incredibly dangerous.

Don’t panic, stay calm, be prepared for anything.

We carry two grab bags onboard, they had everything we needed (and more) in case of having to abandon to a life raft. Contents are as follows…

Bag 1 – This is a SOLAS B certified 50 litre waterproof grab bag containing the following:

Category C 1st aid kit
Thermal protective aids
A sea anchor
Buoyant orange smoke flare
3 x red had flares
Waterproof SOLAS approved torch
Water rations
Food rations

Bag 2 – This is an additional 30l waterproof bag that we put together containing a collection of items that we thought may also be needed if we need to abandon ship. Contents are as follows:

More food and water rations
Handheld VHF radio (fully charged)
Mini dry box containing AA and AAA batteries
Waterproof pouch containing the passports of all onboard (collected at the beginning of an offshore passage)
A waterproof torch
A sharp knife
Spare sanitary items
Spare medication for anyone onboard
A credit card
Waterproof pouch containing all crew details (inc next of kin details and medical history)
IP66 waterproof box containing a solar powered battery bank for phones and charging cables
Sea sickness tablets
Glow sticks

In addition to the above, our life raft comes complete with its own additional supplies. We stow our grab bags in an easy access position, underneath the chart table, at the bottom of the companionway steps.

On our yacht (like most yachts), the VHF antenna was at the top of the mast. When the mast came down we lost all radio range on our ships radio, and it also took out our AIS. So raising the alarm was challenging.

We carry an emergency antenna onboard, and at the very least I would recommend this. Albeit, it won’t be much help in an offshore dismasting, as the range is incredibly limited if you are unable to hoist to any significant height. We attempted to use it, but got no response from repeated May Day calls. We also pressed our DSC button, but got no response.

We used red parachute flares, which worked well in the cloudless sky. With a range of up to 40nm, there’s a good chance that they will be seen. Advice is to let one off, downwind, and then let another off 3 minutes later. We believe that one of the fishing vessels that came to our aid, was due to us letting the flares off.

We struggled to get outside help, so we eventually ended up pushing our ’emergency button’ on our Iridium Go Exec. This gave us sat comms, and ultimately the help we needed. This is an expensive system, but proved to be invaluable and is recommended if you are going any significant distance from land.

Onboard, we also have an EPIRB, although we’ve never had to use it. We also have a handheld VHF radio, which was incredibly useful when we had vessels close by that had come to our aid.

Onboard we had a set of bolt cutters. Ultimately these were clunky and inefficient. My advice would be to invest in hydraulic cutters, but also a portable angle grinder (and keep the battery fully charged).

We found it simpler to unscrew all of the bottle screws, and use knives to cut the lines when we were dismasted. This meant we could do it in a controlled and well thought out way, without the risk of highly tensioned cables suddenly thrashing across the deck and causing injury. One issue we came up against was that we had ‘taped’ our bottle screws to avoid clothing snags on the split pins. This proved time consuming to take off (even with knives), and we lost valuable time. ‘Taping’ bottle screws, although common, isn’t something I would recommend or do again.

For us, the whole mast came away from the deck and the mast head was balanced precariously over the starboard quarter (probably 4m under water). Both sails were unfurled and underwater (fully). We believe the forestay failed, but can’t be certain. We attempted to pull it back onboard, and even use winches, but it was impossible. The sheer weight, and size meant it couldn’t be done without potentially causing huge damage to the integrity of the hull (as the spreaders could have punched through).

Ultimately I don’t believe there was any way for us to save the rigging, without unnecessarily putting everybody at serious risk.

First thing was to just take stock – check everyone was ok. Stay calm, and slow down. I immediately jumped to ‘we must cut it away’, but the right thing to do was to stop and think. So that’s what we did. We took a minute to go over the steps we needed to take, and think through how the situation could escalate.

Rough steps we took in our dismasting were:

Wake everyone onboard, with an instruction to stay calm, get dressed and get on deck with a life jacket on
Secure the rig that was across the deck with mooring lines (tied to winches) to reduce the amount of banging and ‘give’ and to also stop it from fully going over in an uncontrolled way
We made the decision to try and get help, as we were only 12nm from land, and so to have help with us when we cut the rig away and someone to tow us in would be useful
Raised the alarm – we tried radio, this didn’t work as we’d lost radio range (due to antenna being submerged), we rigged the emergency antenna, but this gave little range as we could only get it about 2.5m high. Next we put up 2 parachute flares – we believe this got the attention of a fishing vessel (which came after about an hour). Then we pushed our Iridium Go Exec emergency button, this got us in touch with the Garmin Emergency Centre, and subsequently our shore contacts, who called the coastguard
Help arrived by way of a helicopter and fishing boat, and we were instructed to start work on getting rid of the rig, which was semi submerged, with both sails fully underwater – we opted to undo the bottle screws, as it would give us more control, and was more manageable. This took about an hour. We then pushed it in
We hooked up a tow line and were then towed ashore, and updated all shore contacts that we were safe
At all times we were monitoring the crew for signs of shock etc, and after we got back to shore we made sure everyone was ok, and we had a chat/decompress as a crew before people got some sleep – I think this was important, as it allowed everyone to take stock and reflect on what had been quite a big event

I’m very pleased with how we handled the situation and especially how the crew came together. The decisions we made were well thought out, and well communicated. The team came together very well, with no panic, and no stress. The atmosphere onboard was incredibly calm. This helped the situation hugely.

We had all the right prep and plans in place beforehand to handle the situation (any emergency generally), and as such we had everything we needed throughout.

A lot of the below goes for any emergency, and for general safety. But in essence I recommend the following:

Prep your shore contacts – make sure they know where you are, and certainly where you’re starting and finishing (and your eta). Give them full details of your boat (type of boat, length, hull colour, MMSI, call sign etc) and full details of crew onboard (including next of kin details). A lot of this will be asked for by the coastguard, and it will speed up the process of you getting help. We have a whatsapp group with our shore contacts, and so each time we go offshore we can send a topline plan and everything is in one place. For us, the shore contacts were the people that managed to get us the help we needed, and it helped hugely that they had all the details they needed.
Choose your shore contacts wisely – When it comes to choosing your shore contacts, choose them wisely, and make sure they’re comfortable with this role – they could get a call in the middle of the night saying that you have been dismasted, and they may need to liaise with the coast guard, How will they cope? Will they stay calm? Will they be able to do the job? Choose wisely! Our shore contacts did an incredible job and stayed calm, although they both said it was a bit of an unnerving experience, they didn’t know how bad the situation was, and they had to wait several hours for an update, they didn’t get a wink of sleep that night, but nonetheless they did an amazing job, and we were very grateful for their help and level headedness
Do a really thorough safety briefing – we had done just that, we were heading on a 600nm+ passage, and so spent a good couple of hours reminding the crew of the standing orders, where things were (emergency antenna, first aid, iridium go exec, grab bags etc) and going over safety procedures, etc. It paid off hugely. Everyone knew where to find things, so if instructed (i.e. I need a wrench, or I need the emergency antenna) anyone could get it instantly. Hodge is also obsessive with labelling and listing, and this also helped. So invest time in your safety briefing, it will pay dividends if needed
Rig checks – when it comes to dismasting, obviously the condition of the rig plays a critical factor – get regular surveys and inspections, and if you know what you’re doing then do regular checks yourself. I had gone aloft and done a full inspection (with full photographic evidence) 3wks before. We have also had 2 surveys in the last 3 years. This gave us peace of mind that the rig was sound, and has also been very helpful in terms of the insurance. It obviously didn’t prevent the dismasting, but at least we know we did everything we could, and ultimately freak accidents do happen, all you can do is minimise the chances
Have a decent set of bolt cutters onboard (ideally hydraulic – standard one’s won’t do much). Even better, invest in a portable angle grinder and keep it fully charged
Think it through – plan and prepare for the worst, put in place a plan, have everything you need ready (and accessible). Think worst case scenario and work back from there – would you cope? Have you got everything you need? Is everything well located?
Have well stocked grab bags to hand (see above) – keep crew passports in them (if going offshore), and any spare medication
Have torches to hand – our incident happened at night, having a good supply of easily accessible head torches and a good (very high powered) spotlight was essential
Carry a knife – we enforced that all crew had to carry a sharp sailing knife on them at all times, this paid off- we all used them when cutting the rig away
Remember to write in your log book – time passes quickly – keep a note of what’s happening and when – it’s useful for communicating with the emergency services and post event, with the insurers
Take pictures – sounds silly, but it has been a critical part of the insurance claim – the more pictures, the better. We were even asked if we had a picture of the rig in the water, after it had been cut away!
Remember to eat and drink – hours can pass, and it’s essential to keep everyone hydrated and well fueled. So don’t forget to eat and drink, and make sure others do too. Adrenaline may stop them, but when the crash comes, it’s essential that they have good hydration and energy
Finally, stay calm – I said it above, but not panicking can make all the difference in the outcome. Stay calm

Our insurance company GJW have been absolutely fantastic to deal with. Our assessor flew out to see us straight away, and has been incredibly professional and really helpful.

I mentioned above – keep a log book, take lots of pictures, have regular rig surveys, look after your rig, go aloft (if you know what you’re doing) and do your own regular checks – all of this will help you maintain your rig and prevent a dismasting, but it will also be helpful if the worst happens and you need to make an insurance claim.

Try not to listen to the ‘doom mongers’ and especially the keyboard warriors – they will tell you that insurers don’t pay out on rig failure, or that they dock 30%, etc etc . Block that out, focus on looking after your rig, doing the right thing in terms of maintenance etc, and should you find yourself in the position of having to claim, then depending on your policy you will get what is fairly owned under your policy terms, which for us has been a full payout.

The insurance process has been a ‘you pay, we pay’ system – so we have had to source all suppliers and quotes, put them to the insurance company, arrange the work, and then either we have paid and been reimbursed, or because of the size of the claim some of it has been paid direct. It’s quite hard work (especially when in a different country with a different language), but it’s fairly standard across marine insurance. We have opted to have the mast, standing and running rigging along with sails sorted in France, and then bring the boat home to do all of the other work with local suppliers, but it has been no easy feat to coordinate and organise!

Note: this feature is purely my own personal view and opinion. I am sharing this knowledge with the aim to help and assist fellow sailors in, what to expect, and how to prepare having been through the experience of a dismasting. This is not professional advice, and I will accept no liability for the knowledge I have shared here.

I would encourage anyone taking to the water to undergo proper training and seek the right qualifications through a recognised body for example the RYA or ASA.

You should always use a recognised and professional rigger when carrying out any work on your rig, and sail within your abilities, and on a well maintained and well-prepared yacht.

The Right Way To Navigate Bridges

At some point in your travels here and there by boat, you may have to request a bridge opening. Here's how to do it right.

A crowd of boats wait for a timed bridge to open. (Photo: Mel Neale)

Whether you have to deal with bridges only occasionally or every day, you'll probably have to deal with them at least sometimes. If your boat has very little air draft, you may think there's not much to worry about. But there may be, and the issue of whether you're too tall to get under is only one of many. Here's what to expect when your way is blocked by spans of steel and cement with eighteen-wheelers flying overhead.

Barriers To Safe Passage

Obviously, you must avoid bridge pilings and the structure surrounding bridges. But you must also deal with eddies around them, which may affect your steering. Sailboats have particular issues because the wind may change, causing temporary calms or shifts. It is usually imprudent, and often illegal, to use sails to go through a bridge — unless that's your only means of propulsion. The pilings may obstruct vision, which is important regarding oncoming traffic, but also for avoiding small boats that often hang out around the pilings to fish.

Communities often build trailer ramps on one side of bridges. This means that small boats and skiffs may be blithely taking off from behind the pilings, heading into the path of boats coming through the bridge. Whether you're steering around pilings or through a span, all boats must be extra vigilant, using necessary signals and prudent maneuvering. Rules of the Road are very important, not to mention common sense.

Who's On First?

Usually boats must funnel through a particular span of a bridge, which may require opening. Special right-of-way considerations may come into play. For example, if a boat is heading with the current, other boats heading into the current should normally let the boat being pushed come through first. Smaller nimble boats should generally stay out of the way of a large boat with more limited maneuverability. An outboard skiff darting around the bow of a ponderously moving tug and barge may be obscured from view of the pilothouse. This is true anytime, but particularly in areas of restricted maneuverability around a bridge. And what boater can possibly think his engine can never fail at just the wrong time?

Requested Vs. Scheduled

Many bridges must open to let taller boats through. Sometimes these bridges open on request if given proper signal, but many bridges only open at scheduled times. Always signal the bridge for an opening. Signals include horn blasts (usually a long and a short), but most boats call the bridge tender on the VHF. Bridges stand by on channel 9 or 13, depending on location. Call the bridge by its name (e.g., North Landing Bridge, Barefoot Landing Bridge, Seventeenth Street Causeway Bridge). Otherwise the wrong bridge may think you need an opening. Names of bridges and proper VHF channels are best found in updated guidebooks, where you will also find local rules and customs. Be aware that some bridge names may change. For many years, tugs going through the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AICW) swing bridge south of Little River Inlet, South Carolina, called it, melodically, the "Little River Swing" (pronounced "swang.") Now the bridge is named the "Captain Archie Neil 'Poo' McLauchlin Swing Bridge" after a well-known local legend. The captain may be sitting in his favorite establishment watching as you go by.

This sailboat was dismasted by a bridge. Fortunately, no one was injured. (Photo: Mel Neale)

It's often difficult to plan ahead for scheduled bridge openings because typically the current will change in the channel ahead. This is particularly true in areas where inlets or creeks run to larger bodies of water, such as the ocean. A creek may produce current, speeding you along, but as you pass its intersection, the current turns against you. People who simply plug distance to run into a chartplotter are often fooled.

Communication Is Key

Even if the boat ahead of you has requested an opening, you also should request one so that the bridge tender knows how many boats are coming through. We've known bridges to close on boats that haven't properly notified the operator. Often, when the bridge is in the open position, the bridge tender has limited visibility. Going through in a single file line is usually best because boats on the other side may also be coming through and space is limited.

Sometimes a bridge tender will instruct pleasure boats to wait for a tug and barge or other vessels because of that vessel's special needs or space limitation. Pay attention. Keep a VHF tuned to the bridge's operating channel well before you approach the bridge, as well as during the transit, because there may be special issues such as a malfunctioning bridge, a fire/rescue vehicle approaching on the highway, or other problems. If you know in advance, you can slow down and come through when the situation has cleared.

Into The Melee

When you reach a bridge, there may well be a crowd of boating traffic. If the bridge opens only on a schedule or is otherwise restricted (such as bridge work or emergency highway traffic), it is critically important to take into consideration the special maneuvering needs of other boats (including your own) when you're waiting in a crowd. Try to stay clear. For example, often a sailboat will have little control when backing or require a wide turning radius. Large vessels may have very little maneuverability in tight quarters. Often a tug with a barge must simply keep coming, unable to dodge around smaller boats.

Some vessels may have huge windage issues that make steering and positioning very difficult, especially if the wind is blowing across the channel or toward the bridge. Others, such as deep draft vessels, may be susceptible to strong currents pushing them toward the bridge and may need to face away from the bridge into the current or wind until the opening. Then it will have to turn, and there might not be room to do so within its turning radius. And just as boats have different handling characteristics, skippers have different skill levels. We've passed through many bridges over the years, and my favorite tactic is to remain at the end of the line to hopefully avoid trouble. Don't hang too far back, though, because the bridge tender has an obligation to get the highway traffic moving when he can.

To make matters worse, some bridges are situated poorly from a boat operator's perspective. The Wappoo Creek Bridge just south of Charleston, for example, spans a narrow channel that doglegs. The current is immense, and a large boat coming through on a fair tide may have trouble making the turn. And this bridge usually operates on a schedule. Check the charts to get the "lay of the land" long before you approach a bridge.

Watch Out For Power Lines

High-voltage power lines can carry hundreds of thousands of volts across rivers and bays. Power lines that cross navigable waterways are marked on charts with their clearance listed as from the height of mean high water (MHW), which is an average of several years of high tides. If the power lines are near a bridge, their lowest clearances are required to be higher than the bridge. However never take a chance with "close." Floods or surges can diminish the clearance. Also, voltage has been reported to jump from a power line to the mast top even though that mast top may not have actually touched the line. In addition, extremely hot days may cause some sagging, as could wind, lightning, or other damage to the supporting towers.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, should your boat come in contact with a power line, don't jump into the water. The electrical charge may pass through your boat and electrify the surrounding water. The safest approach is to stay in the boat and avoid touching anything metal. Leave the boat only after it has moved away from the line.

— By Charles Fort

How High Is Too Low

Even if you think your boat's air draft can pass under a bridge, you still may need an opening. The theoretical vertical clearance of fixed bridges on the AICW is 65 feet (except for the 56-foot Julia Tuttle Bridge in Miami). But this is "sometimes." An unusually high tide, flooding from excessive rain, or storm tide can make it less. We've seen sailboats dismasted because they underestimated the clearance. Some sailboats will hang loaded dinghies or heavy jugs of water out to the side on a spinnaker pole and a halyard to cause a heel that will allow them through. (Not a good idea!) Most wisely go out to sea for that part of the passage or wait for sufficiently low water. Other waterways besides the AICW have different height restrictions. For example, 55 feet for the Florida Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and 49 feet for the Okeechobee Waterway.

Extra high tides may mean trouble for tall-masted vessels. (Photo: Mel Neale)

There are usually tide boards at each bridge that show the vertical clearance at the center of the span (or wherever it's the highest), but sometimes these are damaged. It's difficult to "eyeball" vertical clearance. Standing on your deck and looking up creates an optical illusion making the overhead span seem much closer. Sometimes bridge tenders will help, but often they aren't allowed to because of the liability. If you can't clear the span and you're too close to the steel girders, the current or wind may prevent you from stopping in time.

Trawlers and other "short" boats may have a similar problem with a lower bridge, which they would normally need to open. If that bridge is timed, they may want to get under anyway and this requires absolute knowledge of your boat's air draft and the bridge's vertical clearance. The maximum vertical clearance of many bridges is typically at or near the center of the center span, not off to the side, although there are some significant exceptions to this. Bridge tenders sometimes tell captains to lower antennas and outriggers, etc. Requiring an opening just because you don't want to lower your antenna or outrigger isn't lawful.

It Takes Us All To Tango

When a bridge tender does try to be helpful or give you advice, remember that you're the skipper of your boat and are normally ultimately responsible. Many tenders have little actual experience running boats. Some also will become impatient with ignorant or impolite boaters. However, these incidents are not the rule and are often exaggerated. Bridge tenders must juggle many interests, all with the demands of the situation, which can include winds, tides, storms, currents, and poorly trained skippers. If you do have a problem, the U.S. Coast Guard has a "Bridge Office" in each district that you can contact. Typically bridge tenders are anxious to help, many going out of their way to do so. Some are boaters themselves. It takes all of us to make it work.

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Technical Editor, BoatUS Magazine

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Safety at Sea: Dismasted on the Atlantic

By Joanna Hutchinson
Updated: January 2, 2019

Prepare yourself,” called Micha as he scrambled past, thrusting one arm through his foul-weather jacket as he dashed out into the cockpit. The wind whistling past the hull began to race faster and my heartbeat increased as I hurriedly stored the hot rope cutter and needles I’d been using to make new curtains, grabbed my coat and headed for the companionway. Moments later, my head popped out through the hatch just in time to see the 65-foot wooden mast from our 93-year-old classic yawl , Pantagruel , crash over the starboard bow like a felled tree.

Timberrrrrr!

In this second, our world and all our plans changed completely. It didn’t feel real. I half believed that if I closed my eyes and reopened them, the mast would still be intact and we would be sailing normally. I didn’t know how to respond. I could barely look at Micha, knowing that after owning the boat for 20 years, one of his worst nightmares had come true.

What now? My thoughts were hazy, not willing to accept our new reality. We were 10 days into our doublehanded Atlantic crossing from St. Maarten to the Azores, and still 600 nautical miles away from land. How will we continue? Will we be safe? How will we get to land? Will it be with or without Pantagruel ? We’d used up most of our fuel already, so motoring was not an option.

The squall didn’t last long. The wind died down and the sun came out, painting a surreal picture as we gazed in disbelief at the jagged edges of our broken spar stabbing at a blue sky. Micha walked over to examine the devastation, his face set like stone. After a few moments, he sprang into action. “We need to cut away the rigging from the mast and set it free from the boat before it damages the hull,” he said. There was no way to get it back on board with just the two of us, and leaving it on a long line and towing it behind would be too dangerous, especially if the weather turned. Besides, it would be hard to make progress.

Micha disappeared down below and reappeared with giant wire cutters, wrenches and other tools. Reluctantly, we got to work, clipping and snapping away at any rigging attaching the mast to the boat. It was heartbreaking cutting through the strong lines and wires. We flinched with each snip, as if amputating a limb. We even got out the angle grinder to cut through some of the heaviest-duty shrouds. It was devastating work. Before I let go of the genoa sheet, releasing our newest sail into the ocean, I called to Micha, “Shall we try to save this one?”

“Just cut it away,” he sighed — something he’d later regret.

We cut the mainsail away but worked hard to keep the boom on board. The mast, rigging and sails dragging in the water acted like a sea anchor. The moment we cut the last piece away, we instantly noticed a big change in the movement of the boat as we began rolling wildly in the North Atlantic swell. We wished later that we’d been brave enough (and had the energy) to pump up the dinghy and motor to the top of the mast, which was still floating, and rescue the genoa and the new shrouds.

By the time we finished and were finally completely free of the mast and everything attached to it, the sky had already grown dark, and we gave up for the evening. Down below, I numbly started making dinner, more out of habit than out of hunger, while Micha sketched diagrams of a jury rig. I’d been imagining being rescued by another ship or even a helicopter! Meanwhile, Micha had been envisioning ways to get Pantagruel back to safety.

The mast had snapped just above the gooseneck, and his plan involved raising the boom, which was 23 feet long, to use as a replacement. Nevertheless, that evening, we decided to set off the distress alert on the VHF radio.

Totally drained, we didn’t have much of an appetite and nibbled at our food as we analyzed the day’s events. The wind had been blowing at Force 5, or around 20 knots, from forward of the port beam, and we’d been sailing closehauled before the squall had hit. As usual, we were worried about being late to meet our next crew waiting for us in the Azores, and so we had all our sails up: main, mizzen and two headsails, including our 970-square-foot genoa, in order to be as fast as possible. We were also behind with jobs, and had left our windvane steering while we were both busy down below, popping our heads up once in a while to check on everything.

Our cutter-rig headsails were hank-ons, and required one of us to go out onto the bowsprit to lower them. In big seas and strong winds, this was not always an easy task. Our tactic was to steer downwind to reduce the power in the sails in order to drop them. On this occasion, when the squall hit and the wind picked up, the strain on the mast when trying to bear away had been too much, and the mast had come down before we’d had a chance to release the mainsheet. For a mast to collapse, there only needs to be one weak point. In our case, it had been the 6-foot-long shroud chainplate, which was bolted through the planks on the inside of the hull on the port side. It had been pulled out of position and no longer supported the mast. We debated later whether our rope ladder, allowing crew to climb up the shrouds to spot shallows — or for the crew to jump off into the water — had put considerable extra strain on the chainplate, weakening it over the years.

Without its mast, the boat was rolling helplessly, and I don’t think either of us slept a wink that night as we clung to the mattress and listened to each individual spice jar slide back and forth on the shelf.

The next morning, we received a response to our distress call on the VHF from a tanker 20 miles away. At first, we simply asked for a weather forecast, which luckily sounded relatively benign. The tanker pressed us as to why we’d sent a distress signal, asking if there was anything else they could do to help. We explained our situation and said we could use some fuel. We did a quick mental calculation: 600 nautical miles to go; our motor uses 1.3 gallons of diesel an hour, giving us a speed of 6 knots. We decided 132 gallons should be enough to get us to the Azores. To our surprise, they were happy to oblige, and merely asked what kind of fuel we needed — it turned out they were a tanker transporting oil!

They kindly diverted their course to head in our direction and asked us if we would be OK to receive the fuel in 55-gallon barrels that they could crane down from the tanker deck. There would be no chance of going alongside in this swell, so our only option was to inflate our dinghy to collect the barrels.

It was a good feeling to know that someone was out there and they were coming to help. Micha asked if I wanted to leave the boat at this point, and said he’d understand if I’d rather return to land with the tanker. Not wanting to leave him on his own, I declined. The weather had been relatively calm since the mast had fallen, and I didn’t sense we were in danger.

Feeling relieved that help was on its way, we discussed methods for getting the fuel barrels on board. We decided to use two lines, and wrap one end of each to the winches on either side of the cockpit. We’d run the other ends along each side of the deck to the middle of the boat, and make a loop in both the free ends. The loops would be hung off the port side, amidships, and then looped over each side of a barrel in the dinghy. Winching in each line carefully, the barrel could be rolled horizontally up the side of the boat and onto the deck.

Less than an hour later, we saw the tanker, Carpe Diem II, looming on the horizon. It grew steadily bigger until it was just a couple hundred yards away. It was exciting and frightening at the same time to see such a huge vessel heading straight for us — the kind of scenario we usually try to avoid!

Micha jumped into the dinghy and motored over to the side of the tanker where the barrel was being craned down. He looked so vulnerable in our little inflatable next to the 557-foot-long tanker, whose sides were rolling up and down at least a dozen feet in the swell. I watched in disbelief as the barrel was lowered from the 82-foot-high deck, swinging back and forth as the tanker rocked about. I was terrified it would knock Micha on the head as he tried to grab hold and unhook it at the exact moment it hit the dinghy floor. We are extremely grateful for the great skill of the tanker crew, who positioned the dinghy, barrels and crane.

Back at Pantagruel , Micha tipped the barrel on its side and slipped the loops from the two ropes we’d prepared around each end. My job was to leap from side to side of the cockpit, winching in each line bit by bit as Micha called out, “Port, starboard, port,” ensuring that the barrel was rolled up horizontally and not left to fall into the water. The motion from the waves caused the dinghy to bump into the barrel, sometimes knocking it out of the loops and back into the dinghy. Micha roared in frustration as he tried to reposition the barrel to restart the winching process.

Once the first barrel was safely on board, we repeated the procedure for barrel number two. This time, while trying to winch the barrel on board, the dinghy bashed into it as it was halfway up the side, causing it to fall into the water. Micha’s screams got louder, and I thought silently, What else can go wrong? Can we just forget this barrel, and get another one? But Micha had already got the oars out and was starting to paddle after the floating barrel. I put Pantagruel in gear and motored slowly after him until he’d got the barrel back in the dinghy and we began the winching process once more.

We repeated this procedure one last time (minus the paddling). The guys aboard the tanker now lined the rails to watch our progress. Afterward, Micha visited the bridge of the ship and was given the opportunity to call home to explain the situation and to pass on a message to our next crew.

Both back on board, complete with three fuel barrels, we began the task of siphoning the diesel into our tanks as the ship slowly disappeared into the distance. Several hours later, our tanks were full once again. However, with wind and the waves dead on the nose, our predicted 6 knots headway was more like 4 knots, which would leave us short of fuel to make the 600 nautical miles to land.

The next day, we turned the engine off and set to work on Micha’s jury rig. The most difficult part was figuring out how to raise the boom up as a mast. We put our two headsail poles together as shear legs on the foredeck, with a line attached from the top of the poles to the end of the boom. As we lowered the poles, they brought the boom up to a vertical position. Before raising the boom, we attached all the necessary standing and running rigging.

It was growing dark by the time we’d finished, and I persuaded Micha to wait until daylight before trying to hoist a sail. I was greeted the next morning by the strange sight of the head of our staysail fluttering past the coach-house window. Our jib was now acting as a mainsail without a boom, with the tack of the sail at the top of the new mast and the head reaching back as far as the cockpit. We were sailing again!

We hoisted another jib upside down, with the tack again at the top of the new mast and the head at the end of the bowsprit. We tied the head in a knot to reduce the length so we could still use the hanks to attach the sail to the new forestay.

We were therefore able to hoist four sails once more, including the mizzen and mizzen staysail. Our maximum speed with our new rig was about 4 knots and we could only sail at about 80 degrees to the apparent wind, but all in all, it wasn’t too bad.

In this manner we were able to half sail, half motor our way to the Azores. There we had a new sail made to fit our jury-rigged mast, and found the situation so stable that we kept the rig all the way to Germany.

In the end, we weren’t much slower than many other boats sailing across the Atlantic around the time Pantagruel was built, and with all the other systems on the boat functioning well, we didn’t feel like we were in a particularly dangerous situation. The journey took two weeks longer than originally planned, but luckily, we had plenty of food on board!

We are now sailing once more on the Atlantic Ocean, with a new mast standing tall, on our way to complete a circumnavigation aboard Pantagruel .

Micha Sinzel has nine Atlantic crossings and many other sea miles in his wake, and has owned *Pantagruel for more than 20 years. Joanna Hutchinson began sailing seriously six years ago, and recently earned her RYA Yachtmaster rating. Together, they are circumnavigating to celebrate Pantagruel’s 100th birthday.*

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No fuel, no mast, no water: Rescued sailors describe ordeal

Overdue sailors found.

NEW YORK (AP) — Two sailors who drifted hundreds of miles in the Atlantic Ocean for 10 days after a storm hit their sailboat off North Carolina thanked the crew of the tanker that rescued them and said they were lucky to have survived.

Kevin Hyde and Joe DiTomasso, freshly ashore in New York City Tuesday night after their ordeal, described rolling in mountainous waves after the wind dismasted their boat, then running out of water as currents pulled them further and further into the frigid North Atlantic.

“Youse don’t know what 40-foot waves look like,” said DiTomasso, who is 76. “How high’s this building? How high’s the roof?”

The desperate sailors cut their broken mast free, allowing the boat with its weighted keel to ride the swells without being dragged over. “That boat rode so good. That boat could take it, but guess what? We couldn’t. We were beat,” said DiTomasso.

The nightmare began for the two sailors midway through a planned journey from New Jersey's Cape May to the warmth of the Florida Keys.

After departing on Nov. 27, with a pet dog, they had made it safely as North Carolina. The storm came up after they sailed from the Oregon Inlet off the Outer Banks on Dec. 3.

Hyde, 65, said the pair were “sailing along, having a good time” and nearing Cape Hatteras when the bad weather came in and began blowing them off course — and then blew the mast off their boat, the Atrevida II.

The boat also lost power and fuel. “So by that time, we were just being pushed out to sea farther and farther,” Hyde said.

The men had little food and ran out of water.

“We didn’t have water for two days,” DiTomasso said. “And I bought these beans. And the best part about the beans, they had water in them. They were soaked in water. And we’re taking sips at a time.”

The U.S. Coast Guard was notified that the sailors were overdue on Sunday and began a search that spanned the waters from northern Florida to New Jersey.

But it was the crew of the Silver Muna, a tanker headed from the Netherlands to New York, that spotted the Atrevida II some 214 miles (344 kilometers) east of Delaware on Tuesday.

Hyde, 65, said he had been running a flashing light as they drifted, hoping they might be seen by other marine traffic. “By some bizarre chance” he said, a member of the tanker’s crew spotted something and sounded the alarm. The tanker's captain launched a search.

“If you look at the size of his ship and the size of the ocean and just compare it to this toothpick that I'm floating around in — just to be able to spot that, because of the diligence of his crew,” the thankful Hyde said. “Their training paid off and they found us.”

The tanker's crew then maneuvered alongside the relatively tiny sailboat, in ocean swells, to pluck the two lost sailors from the deck and get them to safety.

They were exhausted after arriving in New York, but expected to make a full recovery.

Asked by a reporter if they would do it again, DiTomasso smiled and said “No.”

“I’m staying closer to shore because I have a boat too. And I’m staying in sight of land.”

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Dismasted offshore: how one man got his boat home

Katy Stickland
February 8, 2022

When Jock Hamilton’s 33ft Wauquiez Gladiateur dismasted offshore, 500 miles from land, he created a jury rig using a Laser dinghy mast, sails and oars, before sailing 1,500 miles home

Dismasted offshore: Jock arriving home in Tighnabruaich after sailing 1,500 miles under jury rig

Jock arriving home in Tighnabruaich after sailing 1,500 miles under jury rig. Credit: Jock Hamilton

Bang! I turned around just in time to see the mast of the boat toppling into the water over the starboard side, writes Jock Hamilton .

Bother! I’m 500 miles from anywhere in the North Atlantic. Is it causing damage? These thoughts passed through my mind as I clambered on deck to assess the situation and to attempt to free the mast from the boat.

Heading up the port side, I noticed that a broken deck fitting , to which the port lower shroud had been attached, was the cause.

The boom was largely on the starboard side deck; the mast was ‘sawing’ back and forth across the port guard rail – now an inch above the deck but still taking the strain.

The weather was moderate, about 20 knots of wind with 3m of sea or swell. Having been beating into it, now that we were lying still, conditions seemed a little less severe.

Jock’s route showing where he was dismasted offshore and his return voyage home. Credit: Maxine Heath

Freya , a Wauquiez Gladiateur, was now sitting across the wind, with the mast acting as a sea anchor to windward, and rolling quickly.

As I was at the port cap shroud, I disconnected this by pulling the small split pin out of the rigging pin with my multitool – a fixture on my belt for 21 years – and knocked out the big pin.

Then I crawled forward – carefully due to the rolling and lack of anything above deck level to hang onto.

The inner forestay was simple to detach from the highfield lever, and quickly despatched.

I thought I should detach the boom and try to salvage what I could. The situation seemed stable.

It was relatively easy to cut the leech reefing points, stick a figure of eight in the ends, cut the lazy jacks and cut the sail tape attaching the clew to the outhaul slider.

A yacht sailing under jury rig in the Atlantic Ocean

Under full sail with the jury rig set up after being dismasted offshore. Credit: Jock Hamilton

Moving to the gooseneck I cut the mainsail tack lashing and removed the pin on the gooseneck fitting.

Stupidly I took the rod kicker off at the boom, which meant I lost it with the mast.

With hindsight, I could have taken it off at the mast with a bit of careful work but it was a couple of feet in the air and moving up and down as the boat rolled.

Going aft I thought about taking the pin out from the bottom of the hydraulic backstay tensioner but decided; ‘No, save it’.

This involved taking some seizing wire from the bottlescrew and unscrewing that.

Dismasted offshore: Mast jettison

It was time to get rid of the mast. The forestay fitting went without trouble, again the multitool being adequate firepower for the task.

The mast was now held only by the starboard cap and lower shroud.

The lower went easily enough but I had placed white plastic pipes over the cap shrouds to assist in tacking the genoa and this still covered the deck fitting – it was bent and crushed over the guardrail and prevented me from accessing the attachment point.

Timing the effort, I pushed the bent gutter pipe out over the guardrail enough to access the deck fitting and wire. I had to be careful as I was close to the mast foot which was moving up and down as Freya rolled, threatening a possible injury.

The mast cleared from deck. Note the missing deck fitting, bottom left. Credit: Jock Hamilton

I’d heard in the past that the final fitting would have tension on it and needed to be cut; I used bolt croppers, a hacksaw and a grinder.

In the event, however, it seemed to be more practical to knock the pin out – the same as the others – and time it with the roll of the boat to starboard in order to release it.

With a final check that nothing surprising was likely to happen, I pulled the split pin out, waited for the tension to come off the wire, and knocked the pin out.

The mast slipped, caught momentarily with a cleat over the guardrail, requiring me to lift it slightly, then slid slowly over the side and disappeared into the depth of the North Atlantic.

It was time for a cup of tea and a think.

I was about 500 miles from Halifax in Nova Scotia and 1,500 miles from both home and my intended destination of Newport where four of us, who had had the OSTAR cancelled at the last minute, were heading in the NOSTAR using the same course and date as the original event.

I had in fact noted crossing the halfway distance only around an hour before losing the mast.

Hasty retreat

The sensible course of action seemed to be to sail home. This would be downwind, with the North Atlantic drift and would be most convenient for repairs.

After tea this plan still seemed to be the best. There was a gale forecast for the evening; it was now 1445 ship’s time and the sea and wind were building.

It would be foolish to make a jury rig until the gale had passed through.

I wondered if we’d manage downwind in the conditions without any sail, so disconnected the tiller from the self steering and pulled it up, holding it strongly as the rolling applied forces on the rudder.

The boom rigged as the new mast. The vertical oars helped align it prior to hoisting. Credit: Jock Hamilton

Little happened initially, then the bow inched around and once it had moved some degrees downwind we started to move ahead.

Once moving she turned downwind, I steered for a few minutes to get a feel and we were soon up to three knots so I reconnected the vane self steering and went below.

I then spoke with my sister and Graham, a friend ashore posting blogs on my behalf at www.beaglecruises.com – my Iridium aerial was on the pushpit.

I reassured them that I was fine and that Freya had no damage other than one stanchion broken. I had loads of food, fuel, water and gas.

I considered whether I was being foolish not asking for help. But even with hindsight, I am convinced this would have been the wrong option; getting off Freya , particularly in poor weather would be dangerous and it would be excruciating to have Freya turn up off the west coast of Europe some time later.

Scuttling her would involve getting safely within reach of help and then opening a seacock .

However the idea of getting nicely alongside a big ship – the likeliest scenario – and hoping that we’d sit there happily whilst going below to open a seacock seemed optimistic.

Conditions would make it dangerous for a ship to launch a rescue boat, and having put myself in danger I had no wish to endanger anyone else.

Some 36 hours passed, making three to six knots downwind in a gale with some impressive seas.

My fellow voyager, Ertan Beskardes , on his Rustler 36 Lazy Otter , was knocked down three times and his windvane steering was washed away.

Two days after the mast loss I tried making a jury rig using a Laser mast and sail I’d brought in case it came in handy.

Up on deck I heard the VHF radio come to life, knowing from my satellite comms that Ertan was close, I went below and we had a chat.

He was heading for the Azores for repairs and only a few miles away. Getting aboard him might have been an option but being a bit gung ho I was optimistic about making it home.

Dismasted offshore: Mast foot arrangement. Credit: Jock Hamilton

Dismasted offshore: Mast foot arrangement on the jury rig. Credit: Jock Hamilton

It was great to speak to each other despite the inauspicious circumstances. Signing off I continued with the Laser mast.

It was easy to secure the lower half of the mast on deck but trying to do the same with the whole mast and sail proved tricky.

It was apparent that the old dinghy sail was not going to manage a journey of the length anticipated.

I needed a mast to which substantial sails could be added or removed as conditions warranted. This meant rigging the boom or spinnaker boom as a mast.

Continues below…

Crash Test Boat – Dismasted

Extra photographs from Yachting Monthly’s unique series of disasters on our crash test boat, this time it’s Dismasting

“We watched as the mast and sails fell into the water”

Alejandro Perez describes the moment when ARC yacht Garuda was dismasted 600 miles from land

Lessons learned from abandoning ship mid Atlantic

Solo skipper Billy Brannan lost his home when his 34ft yacht Helena was knocked down, rolled and dismasted during an…

Why you should regularly check your deck fittings

What’s really going on under your deck fittings? Ben Sutcliffe-Davies investigates the hidden weaknesses

As the boom was more substantial and had several useful fittings I opted for this, even though it was shorter.

I lashed the dinghy oars vertically, either side of the sprayhood, to keep the boom on the sprayhood so that, before hoisting, it had some angle to the horizontal.

I attached rope shrouds via a convenient hole in the end fitting on a bight. I have holes in my toerail but because they are quite sharp I added large galvanised shackles to these (from my drogue ) to reduce wear.

As my intention was to eventually have a gunter-style rig, I split the backstay to allow the sail to sit in the angle between the two backstays.

The backstays proved too much for the convenient hole so I put a clove hitch around the mast, above three sliders that I’d moved to the ‘mast’ head to hold a block for the headsail – the top one for the block, the other two to help hold it in position – with an end coming down either side.

Having rigged the shrouds and backstays to what I guessed to be the correct length, I clipped on and pulled on the headsail halyard rigged from the bow roller through the head block to my hands whilst holding the ‘mast’ foot on the deck fitting with my foot.

The tri-sail rigged upside down as a jib. Credit: Jock Hamilton

The mast came up to about 40º, which was fine, but there was quite a force on the halyard still and I needed to secure it. As I moved forward, the safety line came tight and I had to stop.

Pulling hard on the lanyard and wiggling around I just about managed to get a couple of turns onto the windlass before shuffling aft again.

I slackened off the backstays, tightened the halyard and repeated this until the ‘mast’ was vertical.

The gooseneck fitting went over a vertical plate on my deck step and was held in place by bolts and spacers to stop it slipping forward or aft.

I’d attached a forestay via a shackle in the convenient hole on the boom, on a bight, so with this and the shrouds tightened, I now had a mast!

The bights on the shrouds proved impossible to ‘refresh’ without dropping the mast, but the forestay worked well.

Sailing home

Calculations suggested my storm tri-sail would fit between the bow roller and masthead so I hoisted it.

Unfortunately the clew sat soggily on the deck because of the low angle of the new forestay.

However, hoisting it upside down proved successful and worked well downwind after testing it out with sheeting points.

A couple of days later, with the wind more on the beam, I pop-riveted a couple of eyelets to half of the Laser mast, lashed the storm jib to this and hoisted it as a main sail, gunter-rig style, which worked fine but blanked the headsail downwind.

With this rig I could sail much like a square rigger; she sat happily from 70º to the apparent wind and I had to ditch one of the sails above 130º or so apparent.

Initially I doused the mainsail downwind but soon learned that it was easier and more efficient to douse the headsail.

This is how I sailed home. I was very lucky in that the wind was mostly favourable, and I was mostly heading straight home.

We averaged 80 miles per day with a maximum of 109 miles.

This was not dissimilar to my mileage made good outbound – our day runs had been better but not always in the right direction.

Jock Hamilton, son of The Restless Wind author Peter Hamilton, has spent most of his life at sea in the Merchant Navy where he currently works as a captain on anchor- handling supply ships. He had a few years working as a bush pilot in southern Africa and did some time with the Royal Marines as a reservist. He is a keen yachtsman and sailed around the world as captain on Blue Leopard . He is intending to spend future summers showing holidaymakers some of the delights of the West of Scotland through Beagle Cruises, using his new yacht Yemaya , a Bowman 49.

I had to stitch up the headsail a couple of times due to wear along the foot – previously the leech – although I never identified why the wear was occurring, it always appeared to be clear of the pulpit.

With no proper mast the motion became very fast, with a roll period of around three seconds.

This was very uncomfortable and generated fast cyclic loads on the rudder whose bearings I worried about without managing to think of a way to alleviate the stresses.

The stove moved so quickly it kept blowing itself out.

I never walked on deck once the mast was down owing to the motion, although I did occasionally stand whilst hanging onto the mast or shroud.

After the first couple of days, as I was already under storm canvas and sailing downwind, I actually had a more relaxing time than I’d had sailing with a full rig upwind and banging into the sea.

Upwind, green water washed over the decks too, with some inevitably finding its way down below despite blanked vents.

I read and played with recipes sent from Hungary and amused myself baking bread; I’d not found the time for these activities on the way out.

NOSTAR casualties

Of the four of us who set off only one made it to Newport and all sustained damage. I wouldn’t say conditions were particularly bad, more unpleasant, and the constant wear and banging whilst going upwind was going to find and exploit any weakness.

The fitting that failed was an eye bolt; whilst sailing home I was kicking myself for not checking it prior to departure.

Once secure on my home mooring, I withdrew it. It had broken clean across with no sign of corrosion , so I don’t believe a visual inspection would have helped.

The voyage home took 18 days and I received a big welcome with a flotilla of boats and a pier lined with friends waving flags.

It was really touching.

Dismasted Offshore: Lessons Learned

Check all fittings: This may be difficult – withdrawing deck fittings – but will give peace of mind.
Salvage: It would have been simple to release the rig without saving the boom and, at the time, I didn’t think I needed it for my jury rig, but it later proved invaluable. Anything saved may be useful if you are dismasted offshore but also won’t need replacing; new stuff is very expensive.
Careful communications: I emailed my boat insurance company and mentioned the transatlantic race. Whether we were officially racing, with no committee, Notice of Race, handicapping agreement, start sequence and so on, may have been moot, however they took this as proof and reduced the claim accordingly. Also consider what people ashore may do; I stipulated I did not need assistance and didn’t want the Coastguard alerted.
Adapt: I optimistically thought that taking a dinghy mast and sail would be enough to get me home if I was dismasted offshore. I had to adapt my plans after thought and ideas from friends ashore to create a rig to which substantial sails could be added or removed as conditions warranted.
Plan: Consider the worst-case scenarios. Having things that ‘might come in handy’ was a great help. I lost the windvane from my self steering early on; having a spare was invaluable.
Replacement cost: Replacing the mast, furler, sails, rigging , radar, wind instrument, lights, winches , cleats and ropes adds up quickly. I had my rig and sails insured for £15,000 whilst replacement cost, new, is more than double that. Insuring a boat for what she cost second-hand may not be realistic.
Advice from my Father: In my father’s book The Restless Wind , he states: ‘remember the strength of your rig is the strength of the weakest bit of it. Though it’s very heroic to bring your boat in safely after she has been dismasted or half wrecked, it is far more pleasant when she hasn’t.’

Enjoyed reading Dismasted offshore: how one man got his boat home?

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Thread starter Brian Schwerdt
Start date Jul 4, 2012
Forums for All Owners
Ask All Sailors

Brian Schwerdt

It seems I went out in a little more wind than my '76 O'Day 22 could handle, and ended up dismasted. Fortunately, with three young men on board, we were able to easily retrieve the mast out of the water, noone was hurt, and noone was in danger of much more than getting wet. We strapped the mast to the deck, dropped the anchor for an hour or so to regain composure and to ride out the wind. When the wind eased a little, we limped back to the marina. Once safely tied in my slip, I surveyed the damage. Besides my ego, the major damage includes the port chainplate ripped from the deck, and the mast step horribly mangled (see pics). The ruler is difficult to read, but the damaged area is about 3" square, and the crack is about 8" long With the chainplate removed, and a piece of the deck with it, the root cause of the weakness has shown its ugly face - the wood core has practically rotted down to pulp. I am left wondering - what is the best way to repair the damage? Can it be repaired? I understand that you can cut off the top layer of fiberglass, lay new wood, and re-glass the deck. But what if the rot has spread too far? The boat is 36 years old. In theory, the rot could have spread throughout the entire deck. What do I do then? Can it be repaired in pieces? Is the boat even worth salvaging in this extreme case?

Attachments

If you can learn to do the repairs your self it is very much worth doing. If you have to hire it done you face an entirely different cost/benefit ratio.

You can repair that. Also, the chain plate should have been fastened to a bulkhead on the inside. I have seen on YouTube repairs to an area just like yours. Don't worry, just get to work.

Here is the like for YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jq1w6VQm-I&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Yes the way to go is Lay in new wood. Then reglass deck as you said. But do not forget to glass under side of deck. Then have you ever heard of "get-rot" a marine penatrating expoxy? You will have to drill many shallow holes into the top of your deck or were ever you think you have any rot. Just make sure all possible cracks or holes on under side of deck is sealed tight. If you miss any holes it will find it and escape making a mess. Gravity is its friend! Remove any cushions etc. from below and put somewhere safe.This stuff will penetrate and find any rotted or soft wood untill it can go no more. Mix in small batches. Very slow cure rate. But once set any rotted areas of deck will be solid. Do not forget to do the other chain plate areas as well. Once done all you have left to do is deal with the cosmedics of desk. And they make paints for that which can be brushed on. Remember proper prep work is the key for a fine job and will make things go a lot smoother.Take your time and enjoy yourself. luck RR

There is no doubt the boat can be salvaged, it is just a question of wether it is economically feasible. If the cost of the repair exceeds 50% of the boat's current market value it may not be worth to fix. To repair a corroded deck might be quite expensive but a small cosmetic job and relocating the chainplates may be more reasonable. That small section of deck can be repaired and new chainplates can be relocated and through bolted to the outside of the hull. Try to locate a used mast in a salvage yard and see what wires can be salvaged that would work with the new mast and chainplates. See about repairing or replacing the mast step. If you are willing to do the job and once you may determine the cost of materials needed you will be in a better position to determine if you you think the fix is worth it or not.

The cost of fiberglass cloth and resin(epoxy or ester) will be less than fifty dollars. You will need a right angle grinder and a supply of sanding disks. You will of course need all of the proper safety clothing and eye and respiration protection. Total cost can be kept under 200 dollars. This will enable you to do a proper job. As I said, IF you can teach yourself to make the repair it is very do able. If you hired me to do the job I charge 80 dollars per hour and I estimate it would take six hours plus the cost of the materials say 100 dollars allowing for a little profit.

The chainplate would have torn from the bulkhead below decks, which will need to be repaired. Not a huge job, I replaced mine this year. I only had a radius of about 4-6 inches of softness in the deck around the chainplate, which I repaired with polyurathane glue. The old bulkheads were used as a template for the new ones. With marine grade plywood the total for the bulkhead replacement was about $225.

Hello Brian, Thankfully, you said no one was hurt. This situation presents a perfect opportunity to learn to repair hull damage or improve any skills you already have. It seems to be a case of "you can't make it any worse" since the boat is unusable as it is. The small backer plates on the shroud in the last picture certainly contributed to the failure. Replacing them with much larger ones would be easy. Also, this is a good example of why regular maintenance is a very important process. Two reminders for all of us. Using one of the Fein Multimaster knockoff tools will cut a small kerf that can be filled with epoxy and covered with paint that has had the nonskid material added to it. I'll add some pics of a deck repair we did following a dismasting that occurred before we bought our boat. BTW: It's difficult to desctibe the feeling you get when you drill the first holes in your hull or cut the first pieces of fiberglass out of the deck! Best Wishes,

Keep an eye open for someone parting out an Oday 22, or Mac 22, or Catalina 22 and you should be able to pick up a new tabernacle and chain plate for less than $10.

Merlin Clark

Lot's of great info on this project found at the West System site: http://www.westsystem.com/ss/boat-repair/ and http://www.westsystem.com/ss/use-guides/ As the other responders have said this is a very do-able project for a boat owner.

I forgot the repair and maintenance manual: http://www.westsystem.com/ss/assets/HowTo-Publications/Fiberglass-Boat-Repair-and-Maintenance.pdf

Here's another good guide to repair http://www.rotdoctor.com/glass/GLrotrepair.html#deck It should be inexpensive to have a local metal shop make up a new tabernacle if you take them the old one. There is a reasonable chance that the rot is limited to a fairly small area. I would drill small holes from the underside (will show less) to find the extent of the rot. While you're at it, check under the mast step and at any other place that hardware penetrates the deck. And while there's no doubt you have to make a strong repair for the chainplate, many boats sail for decades with rot in their deck cores - as your's probably has. Don't give up on the boat. Carl

Its clear in the picture the PO of the boat did a bunch of wile e coyote quality work starting with the now bent and rusting mild steel mast step and one shroud toggle sure looks bent It can be fixed with a bit of money and a good amount of time and i would have to think the other chainplate is sitting in rotted wood and should be addressed to avoid a repeat

25yearslater

Wrapping up a complete recore on an Oday 27. What a fun and interesting project. See 'And so it begins' under Oday bigger boats forums. Worth every penny. If you feel like a trip to Rochester you can get a look yourself.

Thanks all for the words of encouragement! My current plan is to see what I can learn and do myself - as 31seahorse said, it can't get any worse! The PO definitely neglected this boat. On the other hand, I didn't pay a lot for it. Now I'm finding out why. Oh, and the chainplate was attached to the bulkhead, but it too had rotted out, and the entire bracket pulled right through the deck. Sounds like I should look at replacing that too. Maybe even the compression post while I'm at it. 25yearslater - I'm glad to hear of your complete recore job. I'm sure it took a long time, but it sounds like you learned a lot from it. It also gives me hope that even in this worst case scenario, the boat can be restored. I'm in Rochester from time to time, maybe I'll take you up on your offer. My largest concerns are my skills (I'm not what you'd call handy - and I have nobody local who can help me) and my time (I have a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old). I fear this event just cost me 1 1/2 seasons on the water.

Look at moving the chain plates to the side of hull like in the mac-26c and hunters.

By all means Brian. I have balsa, cloth, epoxy and nonskid mold stuff out the wazoo. Like you I had no previous experience but the directions from WEST Systems were so easy you wouldn't believe it. Took about a year when subtracting our winters. I'd be happy to let you play with the stuff so you don't have to go in blind. The mold stuff is the same as yours from your pictures. The three strand and dot basket weave.

Remember that you aren't planning to circumnavigate in this boat. You just need the mast to stay up in inland waters. Maximize sailing time. Anyone doing boat repairs should remember Voltaire's warning: The Perfect is the enemy of the Good

Do it after planning your steps. 1. Open the wound and clean up the rotted core. 2. fit new core into place. 3. epoxy the new core into place and cover with one layer of glass 4. sand the work fair to this point. 5. apply the rest of the glass cloth to build the thickness you need. 6. . Down load this PDF http://www.ericgreeneassociates.com/images/MARINE_COMPOSITES.pdf

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Sailor Rescued At Sea After Dismasting During Round-The-World Race

Scott Neuman

India's Abhilash Tomy gestures on his boat Thuriya as he sets off from Les Sables d'Olonne Harbour on July 1 at the start of the solo around-the-world "Golden Globe Race" ocean race in which sailors compete without high technology aides such as GPS or computers. Jean-Francois Monier/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

A solo yachtsman whose sailboat was rolled and dismasted in an Indian Ocean storm during a round-the-world race, has been rescued four days after calling for help.

Abhilash Tomy , a 39-year-old commander in the Indian navy, was taken from his smashed boat, Thuriya, approximately 1,900 miles west of Australia by a French fisheries patrol boat.

Tomy rescued safely @nsitharaman @pmo @Australian_Navy @DefenceMinIndia @ggr2018official @SpokespersonMoD pic.twitter.com/G3z7mlLGu3 — SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) September 24, 2018

"Tomy was taken out of his yacht on a stretcher. He is conscious, and he is safe," an Indian navy spokesman Captain D.K. Sharma told reporters.

The Two-Way

Around the world in 42 days: frenchman sets new sailing record, man found after 137 days adrift in sailboat. and it's not his first rescue.

Tomy was participating in the Golden Globe non-stop, unassisted, round-the-world race, a revival of a famous 1968 race. Participants shun modern electronics, such as GPS, for navigation and instead use sextants and celestial navigation to find their position at sea.

In the original Golden Globe race, several participants were forced to quit, one refused to finish despite being in the lead and another died by suicide after stepping off his boat. Tomy's two-masted ketch is a replica of Suhaili, the boat that ultimately won the race.

Of the 18 sailors who entered this year's Golden Globe, Tomy and seven others have dropped out. One other boat was also dismasted in the same storm that damaged Tomy's.

The BBC reports that "Tomy was able to communicate using a texting unit, after his satellite phone was broken. He managed to send an initial message saying he has a severe back injury and was immobilised, unable to eat or drink."

Since the first report of Thuriya's dismasting on Friday, rescue efforts had been underway by India and other countries.

The Indian navy spokesman was quoted by NDTV as saying that Tomy sent a "ping" with his Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, or EPIRB, when aircraft approached his position.

Correction Sept. 24, 2018

A previous version of this story used quotes from Golden Globe race organizers that were wrongly said to refer to Abhilash Tomy. The statements were in regard to a different sailor forced to drop out of the race.

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Dismasted sailboat needs a fuel drop off

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Dismasting in the remoteness of the Indian Ocean

That's not the Indian Ocean. That's the Southern Ocean. 1000 nautical miles south of Madagascar, 1600 miles from Cape Town and over 3000 miles from Western Australia. The Crozet Islands were around 300 miles to his south. As I said in the thread about the idiot in the Hamster Wheel, those racing solo around the world are just as stupid and if some Coast Guard arrests Hamster Man they should also arrest Southern Ocean Man. No Soup For You!

MarkofSeaLife said: That's not the Indian Ocean. That's the Southern Ocean. 1000 nautical miles south of Madagascar, 1600 miles from Cape Town and over 3000 miles from Western Australia. The Crozet Islands were around 300 miles to his south. As I said in the thread about the idiot in the Hamster Wheel, those racing solo around the world are just as stupid and if some Coast Guard arrests Hamster Man they should also arrest Southern Ocean Man. No Soup For You! Click to expand...

Is there a latitude where the Indian becomes the Southern Ocean. Or as you head south it is Indian Ocean, then the southern Indian Ocean, then the Northern Southern Ocean Then the Southern Ocean. Then the Southern Southern Ocean, Then, Oops Antarctica.

garymalmgren said: Is there a latitude where the Indian becomes the Southern Ocean. Or as you head south it is Indian Ocean, then the southern Indian Ocean, then the Northern Southern Ocean Then the Southern Ocean. Then the Southern Southern Ocean, Then, Oops Antarctica. Click to expand...

OK, OK, Now, looking at Wikipedia, there seems to have been some highly political differences in history about where the boarder of the Southern Ocean is. I thought it was 40 degrees south, the Roaring 40's ... but thats too simple! The northern limits of the Southern Ocean were moved southwards in the IHO's 1937 second edition of the Limits of Oceans and Seas . The Southern Ocean then extended from Antarctica northwards to latitude 40° south between Cape Agulhas in Africa (long. 20° east) and Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia (long. 115° east), and extended to latitude 55° south between Auckland Island of New Zealand (long. 165° or 166° east) and Cape Horn in South America (long. 67° west). [16] The Southern Ocean did not appear in the 1953 third edition because "... the northern limits ... are difficult to lay down owing to their seasonal change ... Hydrographic Offices who issue separate publications dealing with this area are therefore left to decide their own northern limits. (Great Britain uses the Latitude of 55° South) ". Instead, in the IHO 1953 publication, the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans were extended southward, the Indian and Pacific Oceans (which had not previously touched pre 1953, as per the first and second editions) now abutted at the meridian of South East Cape , and the southern limits of the Great Australian Bight and the Tasman Sea were moved northwards. [9] Maybe its a bit like Pluto... De-Oceaned! I feel warmer already! Mark

I think it was last year when the Southern Ocean officially became an ocean. I didn't see any limits, but I'd guess it would be where there are no longer pleasant days of sailing. Even if the winds aren't extreme, I imagine the swell never stops.

MarkofSeaLife said: @Chili Palmer you might need to bare with me a bit for me to explain why I do see a correlation, and Im not in anyway trying to be trite or to think that Hamster Man is anything but a nutter. I also recently had a long chat with @Jeff_H before he understood my viewpoint. Backgrounder, yes I have crossed "the pond" a few times. I think more than anyone else on this forum except for @capta : 3 east to west Trans- Atlantic's, 1 West to east Trans Atlantic; 3 Caribbean to NYC; 3 NYC to Caribbean; 2 east to west trans Mediterranean; 1 south Atlantic Canaries to Argentina; 1 x trans Pacific, 1 trans Indian ocean; a fair few East coast Australia Sydney to Great Barrier Reef, and 1 Sydney to Darwin, Indonesia, Thailand. Planning 2024 Caribbean to Maine & return; 2025 Caribbean to UK; 2026 UK, Med, Caribbean. My idea of what "seamanship" is all about is completing the passage . That sounds simple but its not. Hamsterman could never complete an upwind/upcurrent trans Atlantic in his wheel. But he could very well be able to do the East West Trans Atl as its downwind and down current. Bath tubs have done that. A bit of floating wood can do that. Hell, that guy in the 1970s Steve Callagan(??) did it in a life raft from 2 days outside the Canaries till he was washed up in Antigua. My idea of Seamanship is to get your ship/boat/wheel through its passage unassisted, without unscheduled pitt stops, without breaches of safety, without significant breakages that cause an abort of the passage or rescue etc. My argument with @Jeff_H was that he tries to make his boat sail to the best if the boats ability. Whereas I try to sail my boat to complete the passage. Sailing the boat to its best ability (the BOATS best ability/efficiency etc) is, obviously at, or close to Hull Speed or faster if the hull form allows it. Sailing to complete the passage means to sail in a manner not to break anything, to keep the "energy" of the boat as low as possible; to avoid wind that would increase the energy or % chance of a breakage. And in the event of a breakage that the energy expended on the boat at the time was so low as to reduce the damage to allow the completion of the passage. When my boat starts going anywhere near Hull Speed I slow it down. I sail long passages conservatively. Case/Method: A few years ago about 800 miles west of the Azores a storm brewed over Cape Hatteras heading our way. A boat 24 hours ahead of us emailed he was going to try to get to the Azores before it hit. I knew I couldnt. I did a 7 day diversion. 7 days!! Because he was trying hard to beat the storm he broke his auto pilot 18 hours out and was very luck not to get into deep strife. I was fine and sailed in a week later. But heres the rub: 6 boats were sunk in that storm near the Azores. Like the ones in the Indian Ocean/Southern Ocean right now, the 6 were race boats in the Jester Challange. I contend race boats break my rule of seamanship unless they are in a contained environment close to ports/assistance/rescue because they are running their boats too hard, too fast, with too high energy, to have a % safety factor that allows for the completion of the passage. I contend 4 boats in difficulties in a week proves this. Check Marinetraffic.com for that area of ocean and theres no help out there. Theres no shipping lanes there, no ships, the closest ship maybe a week away. The Tony Bullimore rescue the navy ship steamed south west from Perth for 1 whole week to reach the rescue site. * My boat does not go to the Horn, the Cape, Greenland or anywhere but the tropical cruising routes. * You point out the race is well organised. Organisers specifically waive any claim to assessing the viability of boats in their races/rallys/cruises etc They might do a safety equipment inspection but read the fine print of the contract you sign, they're not liable for nothing when it comes to seamanship, its the skipper one. The organisation is sitting in front of a fireplace in New York, La Rochelle, or Cowes and most would have never sailed a bout in the Roaring 40's let alone at hull speed for 6,000nms! The Jester Challange also has an organisation. Again whats "well organised" and how do we know? If 6 hamster wheels set off together after forming a Yacht Club with silk ties and club flags would that then make then acceptable? Of course not. 🤣🤣🤣 * Remember the chart is a Mercator Projection. That stretch of water around the 7 Capes is one hell of a long way. Sailing the way I do doesn't make me 'right', it doesn't mean I don't break things, nor does it mean disaster wont happen. But the percentage chance of it happening disastrously is much lower than others. I believe thats the spirit or the weird word seamanship . Mark Click to expand...

When I began ocean sailing a very large part of the preparation was for each skipper to have some idea of what he/she would do, and have aboard what was needed, should the boat suffer catastrophic damage. There just wasn't a "get out of a scary situation free" card, back then. Of course, it was a great deal easier on wooden vessels with wooden spars, long straight keels and keel hung rudders. to jury rig some form of locomotion. With celestial navigation being an almost mystic art and DR being something each skipper practiced almost without thinking about, there were many, many fewer unprepared people putting to sea. And a good thing, too. Rescue wasn't hours away, or days even, but almost assuredly months (by chance in that case), or never. It was a case of do or die. I've never been a fan of pleasure boats being able to take advantage of the rescue services provided for commercial mariners, for free. Most of us couldn't afford the service and no insurance company could take that sort of hit on a vessel paying the stipend we pleasure sailors pay for offshore sailing. Perhaps, were a policy instituted whereby those pleasure sailors without sufficient knowledge and experience had to pay for their "get out of a scary situation free" card, then there would be many fewer times that the rescuers had to put their lives on the line for those who shouldn't be there in the first place. I'm not advocating licensing or regulating, just paying for services rendered.

“My idea of what "seamanship" is all about is completing the passage . That sounds simple but its not. Hamsterman could never complete an upwind/upcurrent trans Atlantic in his wheel.” Sounds logical. But how many thought Alain Bombard had even the most remote chance? My grandfather sailed to Hawaii, Samoa, and Guadalcanal. Later, to UK. Then North Africa, and later France. His chance of failure was high. The torpedo didn’t help. But the fact that he and his cargo got through- and others didn’t - was an acceptable risk. Sometimes I do things that have a high probability of failure. Almost everything of significance I’ve done has been in spite of others trying to stop me. Sometimes i get lucky, sometimes I pull it off the next try. The risk of loss to the Spanish treasure fleets was astonishing. I think they were nuts- not the rich backers, but the sailors themselves. A successful passage and return though had great reward…but does all reward have to be monetary? There’s nothing like pulling into port and saying “ha! We pulled it off!” I guess we failed passagemaking thrice this year, heading out and failing to make the destination port. But the failure still forced refreshing of heavy weather sailing, and instilled confidence in crew and boat As for proximity to life saving services, is there a difference between the southern oceans and ten miles from shore when the coast guard refuses to go out? I like that definition of seamanship. I do try to keep to that. I didn’t always. Not everyone has to be of the same mind.

Ari Känsäkoski’s test of determination and ingenuity to reach land - Global Solo Challenge

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