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The rigging was up for three weeks, since taking the boat out of dry storage, and docked at a friend’s house at lake Harwell Georgia. We had some very gusty winds for a couple of days when my friend called and told me the mast had come down. The dock is in a protected cove but wave action could have played a part in this. I was on a business trip at the time and have yet to see the damage first hand. The good news is that nobody was hurt.

Let me apologize in advance if I do not use the correct terms here and for the length of this post.

I use a wire lock pin at the bottom of the fore stay; I have a roller furling. Evidently this pin worked loose because the locking wire was inadvertently disconnected when I washed the boat last weekend or at some other time, or it was not correctly installed when I rigged the boat. My friend says the locking wire was bent almost straight which to me means it temporally caught the weight of the mast when the pin came out.

My friend’s dock has a swim ladder that is about seven feet long and swivels up and locks in the vertical position to keep it out of the water when not in use. When the mast came down I’m assuming the wind pushed the mast to starboard so that it came to rest about fifteen to twenty degrees off the center line of the boat. Some of the rigging caught on the swim ladder and cushioned the fall; another stroke of good fortune because the mast came to rest, supported by the rigging, almost horizontally and only suffered “cosmetic” damage.

OK so you know I didn’t come out of this with out real damage. When the mast went over the side it twisted what I think is called the mast base hinge plate. Apparantly there is no damage where this pate attaches to the mast. There was no damage to the plate that attaches to the boat.

One of the spreaders is slightly deformed but no kinks.

Lessons learned: Inspect the rigging often. If I had done that last weekend after working on the boat this may have been avoided. I also think I will start using the head sail halyard intended for a hank on jib as a “safety” when the sail is not in use.

So here is where I ask for guidance and recommendations. I have read on this forum that a roller bearing assembly was available to replace the stock swivel arrangement for the mast on the M. Mine has really never worked very well, it tends to be either full left or right and when it changes sides it is with gusto, enough to think something broke. I was thinking that Blue Water Yachts offered this device and E-mailed an inquiry some time ago but did not receive an answer. Does anybody know if this device is still offered and if so who is offering it?

From reading many posts on this site I get the impression that the spreaders are some what tinder and that any spreader with any damage should be replaced rather than attempting a repair. I remember reading that someone was using stainless spreaders. Are they commercially available?

I have guests expecting to go sailing in about 10 days and need to find the quickest method of acquiring this or stock material as soon as possible. Any help you can give me in this regard would be very welcomed.

Thank you in advance

John

I'm glad you were so lucky to escape having someone hurt or major damage to the mast or hull.

I use a s.s. 1/4" bolt with nylock nut on the forestay furler to chainplate fitting attaching the furler to the boat. It may take a minute longer to remove for lowering the mast but I have more peace of mind about it staying there no matter what wind or wave it sees. And inside the furler, both sides of the turnbuckle have split rings to secure the rigging tension.

It does not sound too bad. For guest arriving in 10 days you should be OK. You can replace the spreader easily. You may want to call Bill at the factory and have another sent out. This far in advance it can be done. Blue Water may have them in stock.

Check the base of the mast. Some slight bending in place should get you buy for this trip.

Did you have the boom on? If so, you may have to replace the gooseneck. Again, can be gotton from factory or maybe Blue Water. This is a good to have item on hand as it does break from time to time as well as the spreader.

If all else fails, Just take the mast off and have a good motor trip. Lable where the wires go. Different color tie wrapes works.

Night Sailor wrote:I use a s.s. 1/4" bolt with nylock nut on the forestay furler to chainplate fitting attaching the furler to the boat.

Ditto. This is the way it comes from the factory, and it seems to work well.

I think the chainplate actually come with a 6mm hole which has to be drilled out to accept a 1/4 inch bolt...this takes 5 seconds to do but a 1/4 wont fit the stock plate IIRC???

Treat this as unconfirmed from me....

I think it's a good tip to back up the forestay with the jib halyard when not flying a jib (I use hank ons). It's one thing for the mast to go over the side, another for it to come slicing through the cockpit! This happened to one of the Volvo 70's in this year's Sydney to Hobart, a forestay fitting gave way at night and 100 ft of carbon fibre came close to decapitating the helmsman!

Freestyle,
Take that base plate off and have a good look at it from different angles, chances are it is very twisted and needs replacing. I had mine twisted one time while raising my mast witout the babystays attached. I usually leave the babystays attached full time because they give me something extra to grab when moving forward. On this particular occassion I had my boat at the dealers for some service work and the rigger had removed the babystays and placed them below under the boom & mainsail where I did not see them. When I raised the mast that weekend I assumed my babystays were in place as always but up went the mast and part way up she swerved to port and I quickly grabbed it and pulled it back to center but it still twisted that big thick SS plate so I had to get another one free from the dealer. It takes very little to twist that plate given the lenght of the mast. I still have my twisted plate in my garage to serve as a reminder of what can happen.
As for the Bearing plate it is just a simple little item from Blue water Yachts, I paid $20.00 for it and it works much better than those goofy teflon washers, the mast rotates much smoother now. It is just a couple enclosed washers with bearings in them but it sure is a big improvement. Every new M should come with it.
I also keep my jib halyard attached and tight even though I have hank-ons when powering just as a safety back up.

Terry wrote: I also keep my jib halyard attached and tight even though I have hank-ons when powering just as a safety back up.

i've always prescribed to this.
even with my furled jib, i have since added a second "jib" halyard on a block 8" above the existing one. i attach this 2nd halyard to the bow pulpit as a safety precaution. it stays fastened at all times as it does not interfere with normal sailing. and, i feel much safer when mototing at 20+mph.

i have now read on this site at least 3 occasions where the mast inadvertantly fell. all different reasons. none used a "safety" halyard.
so i follow my eagle scout ways...Be Prepared!

Bob T.
"DāBob"
'02X w/ '04 90-TLDI (14" x 11 pitch)
Dinghy Motor: '06 2.5-Suzuki

I usually just leave the mast raising system in place while I sail (but I crank the tension back off of it). I do this because I usually pull the mast down after every sail and then cover the boat as to keep the sun and elements off of it. By doing it this way, you do have a backup forward stay. Just a thought.

Thanks all for the good advice. I will be using the bolt from now on and the halyard as a safety.

I found the roller ball mast bearing at Blue Water Yachts in stock as well as the spreader. Both will be here by Friday.

Thanks again to all.

John

26M's do come with a 6mm pin, not a bolt. The forestay could be fastened with a 1/4" bolt, but one important thing! A 1/4" bolt is actually only about 3/16 thick considering the threads cut into it. To be sure, remove the bolt to check for a 1/2" shoulder. Someone must have replaced the pin with a bolt and who can be certain if correct type was used!
A shoulder bolt with 1/2" shoulder will be OK.
Mike Inmon