Lost my Mast today

[Sterling]

I was sailing in 20+ mph winds today and during a jibe my mast came crashing down.  It happened in an instant.  My boat is a 1976 Com-Pac 16.  I'm attaching some pictures with the hope that I can get some advice on how to repair the damage.  I don't want this happening again.  I'm assuming that there had to be past causes for what occurred today.  Perhaps the mast has stresses placed on it when being raised and lowered.  I would love to here your thoughts.  Thanks.

[mattman]

So the base of the mast fell out from under the rig? Or, did you lose a stay? How hard was the jibe? What is your jibe technique? Did you have a reef tucked in?. Is the mast bent,broken or I wouldn't assume past causes or damage - implies you didn't make a mistake or that fatigue recently settled in. Please more information-thanks so much.

[Sterling]

The screws that hold the mast bracket in place were pulled right out of the glass.  The stays remained attached and were not damaged.  It was a hard jibe.  I was with my wife and as a storm cell moved upon us we decided to drop the main and motor back home.  We had it reefed and we were not using a jib.  I fired up the outboard and put the bow into the wind so we could drop the main sail easier.  I didn't intend to jibe, but made the mistake of not pulling in the main sheet.  The wind caught the sail and it swung the boom around and caught on the other side.  I don't know if I'm explaining this well. I definitley made a mistake in not tightening the sheet before we went to drop the sail.  As we swung around the mast came down.  Perhaps that's all it takes to bring down the mast. I won't do that again.

The mast is not broken.  The only damage is that it pulled out of the glass and the bracket is bent.  I can reshape the bracket.  Not sure how to approach reinforcing the glass and where the bolts attach.  Could use some advice on that.

Thank you.

[skip1930]

My first thought was the mast came down during a jib NOT because the tabernacle let go but rather the standing rigging failed.

Either the head stay failed ...
or
One of the two side standing rigging shrouds failed ...

As the mast fell, of course the tabernacle twisted away.

Without holding the phone closer to the damage I have no other ideas.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Look~see the bow tang where the pin is attached to the turnbuckle. Pin fall out?

Look~see the chain plates where the pins attach to the turn buckles. Any pins missing.

Note that the only thing holding the mast from falling forward are the side shrouds.
Note that the only thing holding the mast from falling back is the head shroud.

My question is;
Which way did the mast fall? Forward or backward?
Or had it fallen sideways?
Did the top of mast fall or did the base of the mast slide out?

Aside from trauma, no big deal.

I never liked the idea that the tabernacle was JUST screwed down into a fiber glassed in piece of plywood. I call it a hard point.

Compression post O.K. Shrouds weren't so taught that the mast was being pulled through the bottom of the boat?

Or so loose that the mast wiggled around. You don't have any spreaders so you only have one shot at making it right with the mast straight up and down.

I much prefer that the tabernacle fasteners be drilled clean through and the holes filled with Marine-Tex and bolted in with flat washers, finishing washers, and ny-lock nuts or acorn nuts.

Want the tabernacle to stay put? Make it a sandwich and use the cabin top. [one 1/4 bolt sheers at 628 lb taking into effect a 4:1 safety factor, and there are four bolts. Plenty of 'hold'.]

My cure is to drill clean through and slip in some 1/4-20 ss bolts washers and nut with copious amounts of Marine-Tex in the holes and under the sheet steel of the tabernacle ... wait an hour, step the mast and REDO ALL THREE SHROUDS, making them 100% perfect.

That just how we fixed my buddies CP-19 when his tabernacle let go and slid forward while we were stepping his mast. Rotten wood, stupid short worthless wood screws. You'll never loose the tabernacle with through bolts and the Marine-Tex will keep the water out. Two hours later we sailed from the launch ramp to the dock. We stepped that mast and sailed this way for five years now.

YEA O.K. It's a fast clean assembly and a nice selling point [no through fittings] for the sale floor but bad for us in real life. People can be hurt with stuff like this!

Accidents don't happen. You have to let them happen.

As for jibing in brisk winds, pull in the main sheet, turn, and let out the main sheet ASAP. It's not the jib but the stop that makes the jolt.

skip.

[Jason]

Hi

Sounds like a harrowing event!  Looking at the photos the damage does not seem serious.   The tabernacle should be attached with screws through the roof into the compression post, and it looks like that is how yours was connected.  I would clean up the fiberglass , check the compression post for cracks or damage, and I would drill me pilot holes and screw in a new tabernacle using screws that are 1 size up from the old screws.   Bed with 3M 5200. I would buy a new tabernacle from Hutchins, but an option would be to just pound your old one straight and reuse it, depends on condition of the old one, like I said, I would install a new one but that's just me.  The shrouds and stay are what holds the mast down, the screws are mostly there to position the mast not to hold it down.   From the photo am I correct to assume that the mast stayed attached to the tabernacle he whole time?  And the screws did not shear off, they just pulled out?

If your shrouds and headstay are not damaged and never detached or broke, then i would be sure to check tension on those after you restep the mast.  I think that they may have been loose if the mast and tabernacle broke loose from the cabin roof.   I don't see any scratch marks on the cabin roof showing where the screws dragged out , so the mast may have been allowed to lift a ways due to slack shrouds/stay.  The screws may have worked fairly loose or worked the screw holes open.  The shrouds and stay should not be under high tension, but they should not be "loose".

After such an event I would recommend a thorough inspection of the rigging as it may have been damaged which could cause a future failure.  Kinks, corrosion, cracks strands, all would require replacement of standing rigging.   Check the shrouds and stays and chain plates and stem hardware, and swaged fittings, and pins, and make sure everything is A OK.

Good luck

Jason

[Sterling]

Skip, reading your comment made me think.  I reviewed what happened with my wife again.  We were both on the boat.  With the wind, rain, chop and mast coming down, it was kind of a blur.  We motored back holding onto the mast, boom and sail and when arrived I removed the two side stay pins and pulled the stays off.  What I didn't realize was that my wife did not have to remove the front stay.  You are right, the front stay came off.  It has a push pin connector that slides into a bracket on the bow.  The odd thing is, the bracket is intact and the push pin was attached to the stay???  I will have to take a closer look at it in the daylight tomorrow.  That was the culprit.

[skip1930]

EVERY pin going into a turnbuckle or tang/chain plate should have a drilled hole in it's end where a CIRCULAR circlip goes in. These are a ONE use circlip.
They are cheap insurance.

Now in hind site my buddy had a very short pin that was suppose to go through the bow's tang and also through the upside down U of the furler.
One season he sailed the whole season with simply the head of the pin STUCK in the two tangs for his furler. The other end of the pin where the drilled hole is was never sticking through the U of the furler and never cir-clipped. Can you say LUCKY? I didn't catch it 'cuz I didn't pin it. I saw it when I went to pull the pin when we were ready to take the mast down.

skip.

[wes]

Sterling - the tabernacle and it's mounting screws did what they designed to do: pull out of the fiberglass cleanly when the mast came down, leaving holes that are relatively easy to fix. It's the rigging that holds the mast up, not the tabernacle. All the tabernacle has to do is keep the bottom of the mast from sliding around, and the screws are plenty strong enough for that.

I have to respectfully disagree with Skip. If you through-bolt the tabernacle and the mast comes down again, you'll rip a football sized chunk out of your deck - a much bigger repair.

One of your stays let go. The direction the mast fell will tell you which one - it likely fell away from the failed stay.

Wes

[carry-on]

A blessing that you and your wife were not injured.
20+ is quite a load to cross the stern in a three stay rig. Did the mast go forward? Did it fall on deck or did the shrouds hold it at an angle above the horizontal?  From your pictures , don't see damage to the toe rail or pulpit.
Seems the cabin top in pre 1980 CP 16s was cored with balsa. You may have some water damaged coring to consider in your repairs.

[skip1930]

Well Wes is correct a falling mast with a stationary tabernacle because it's through bolted will pull a giant sized hole in the cabin top.

Or the mast will bend the tabernacle and there is a chance that the mast will be nearly fallen over but cantilevered at some weird angle still hanging onto what's left of the tabernacle still screwed down to the cabin top  ... naaaa, that will never happen.

I'm not going to let that happen on my tub.
If I upcuff and she falls then I'm going to saw out the offending mess and lay in some more glass-wood-glass.

When we were out sailing in our Star Boat we broke our hollow spruce mast miles off shore in Lake Michigan. No motor, just a paddle, so we were towed back to Belmont Harbor in Chicago by some stink potter. Then we built a new spruce mast.

And to be truthful I still sail with the factory set up ... it's cheap, it's fast, and short-worthless wood screws, into a plywood hard point secure my tabernacle today. If I have no water ingress she'll go a few more years. I don't really think the factory was concerned about that at all. That's a good question to ask Rich Hutchins.

And if I loose my tabernacle, I'm drilling mine clean through and bolting. Just as we did for my buddies CP-19 as described above.

My cabin top is solid resign 'cored' with micro-balloons. No rot cept for that hard point. Don't know about plywood hard points.

skip.

[Sterling]

I want to thank everyone for the comments, concerns and contributions.  It is a blessing that we were not injured.  The mast fell aft and starboard, narrowly missing my wife's head.  It came down fast. I wish I had my Gopro on at the time.

The front stay is the culprit.  The push pin slid out, although the pin stayed in the stay. A simple split ring like Skip pictured is all it would have taken to prevent this. I should have went with my gut because I never did like how that was held by a push pin. I just figured that if it were a problem, someone else would have had an issue before me.  I haven't had the boat that long.

I have her tied off to my dock right now, but will pull her out tomorrow and do the repairs while she's on her trailer.  I like what you said about it coming apart like it's supposed to do, Wes.  It should be a relatively easy fix. Jason, I live close to Hutchins, so I probably will drive over and get a new tabernacle just to make sure I didn't fatigue this one.

Thank you everyone,

Sterling

[NateD]

Since the screws pulled out, there probably isn't enough good wood left in the holes to screw it back down without some repair. Given the age of the boat and the pictures of the mast step/screws, it looks like water may have gotten into the wood core. If the wood core is rotten the right way to fix it involves removing a lot of cutting, grinding, and fiberglassing. But you can probably get by just filling the holes with epoxy, wait for it to cure, then drill new pilot holes and screw the turnbuckle back down.

As to the perpetual screw vs bolt through debate, I've done it both ways. On my 23 the gin pole put enough stress on the turnbuckle that it was starting to pull the screws out, so I through bolted it. On my 16s, I've left the screws. As others have said, through bolt will likely result in more damage in a dismasting, but there may be good reasons to do it (gin pole, rotted core).

I'm glad no one was hurt, that's a scary day on the water.

[Craig]

Comment on circlips! While they provide ok security, they CAN back out. I know this because I lost the mast on a WW Potter that I once owned when the circlip backed out. They are definitely a one-use item and preferably be taped for added security. Looks to be a fairly easy fix on your tabernacle usin the methods cited above.

[hinmo]

Slightly OT - I de-masted my Catalina 25 on its maiden voyage a few years ago. The clevis pin holding the furler/forestay to the chain-plate failed in 20kts. We were on our final approach to the harbor after a 30 mile sail from Plymouth including the Cape cod canal and buzzards bay....almost made it!
Scary - lessons learned: nothing for granted!

[skip1930]

Yep, anything can happen if you let it. " Comment on circlip! While they provide ok security, they CAN back out. "

I like the circlips because one glance will tell if they are there or not. I have five clips to look at as I take my sail cover off for a trip.
I can't see the one under the furler.

Which is also why my rudder nuts are 'up'. One glance over the transom and I can see any problem.

Accidents don't happen. You have to let them happen.

I'd fill the holes with marine-Tex and screw or bolt the fasteners in WHILE wet. And not drill a hole for a fastener in cured epoxy. I'm thinking WET gives a better water seal. A drilled-dried hole will always be larger then the fastener.

skip.