Over the winter and during the transition to Kelowna from Grand Forks, I lengthened the old mast mainly for fitting a new tops’l. The longer mast was also planned to aid in a few rig areas that bothered me. The throat halyard was far too pinched together and the peak had a bad unhandy angle and purchase. The side stays or shrouds attachment point at the mast were hindering the movement of the gaff when sailing dead down wind.

I finished all the new wire stays, new stainless turnbuckles, chain plates, swaged fittings, new halyards and topping lift yesterday morning. It was finally time to go sailing. But, the weather looked lousy. I held off all day and in the end, could have gone and not had any of the forecasted rain or thunder showers.
Hindsight eh?
So this morning I finished a couple of small items and we decided to go out weather regardless. Forecast was much the same as yesterday except there were no wind numbers. Thunder storms and rain was the forecast. We needed to get our first sail of the year in, so we headed out anyway.

The new launch ramp facilities are excellent, and just a few blocks away from our home. In fact, we live close enough to the lake to hear motor boats faintly in the evenings. The breezes we get here at the suite are the lake winds. No guessing any more.
The ramp facility is all tarmac, has great parking for vehicles with trailers, large well kept docks, a beer store and a gas dock as well. Paradise I say. We managed to get to heaven without actually dieing. Here is an image of the launch area (The Eldorado) when Zach and I sailed this area of the lake last summer.

We had a fine light breeze of 5-8 knots to play with for about an hour. All the new angles were perfect. Adjustments are so much easier and smoother. The gaff and boom clear the stays as planned and peak adjustments are now wonderful.

The only thing I will have to change is the jib halyard. I cheaped out and bought hardware store nylon again. I stretches far too much and am constantly taking up the slack with the downhaul (which leads to the cockpit). I will try and score some nice stiff yacht braid in the future. It is hard to keep a nice tight luff with stretchy halyard stock.

After a nice shakedown period behind us, it was time for the weather gods to toss in a few curves. First a series of lulls then a series of squalls from a full 180 degree selection of the rose.

The squalls got bigger and fiercer very quickly. I was constantly watching for the next slam and the new direction. I was so busy just spilling wind and trying to pinch up that the main storm was on us within a minute or two. It then became a survival situation. The wind was blowing so hard that with any hardness in the main at all she was over powered big time. I had no time to pull out the anemometer, but judging from the fact that we had instant solid white capped four foot steep lumps all over us I would guess 30 knots plus. Once we got home there were tree limbs down and word of a whole tree down a few blocks away. Our deck was covered in leaves and needles at home and all the garbage can lids were blown off etc etc. We went for a walk later in the day and all the alleys were covered in broken branches and various wind blown debris.

So we are in a wicked situation here. I had to get the main down and there was no way to heave to as I would have had to tack her over and that was not going to happen. I needed to keep some pressure on the jib as when there wasn’t any pressure the thing was flogging so hard I thought she would go to bits. As it was everything was shaking beyond description. I loosed the main halyards to get the main down. It took some doing as the boom was out over the water and the pressure on the sail was tremendous. Just as we got that down, temporarily lashed and was trying to settle the jib into something we could sail with there was another huge slam of even more pressure and another major direction shift. The jib was shaking so hard I looked up at the mast and it looked like rubber! It was whipping around like crazy. I even said this to Daphne. The weird part is all the stays as well as the forestay seemed slack. Seconds later the mast broke in two places and the rig came down. The breaks were up high, above where the gaff jaws would normally sit, so the rig was carried over the side and the main part of the mast stayed supported by the tabernacle sleeve. This is a heavy fiberglass sleeve custom made for the hinged area of the mast. The tabernacle.
It was nice not to have those sharp mast pieces fall on top of us. The jib and all the wire and line went over the side and were soon trailing ‘behind’ in the water. All I remember saying was, “Ooop….there goes the mast”. I had half expected it to happen as the conditions had gotten so fierce and the upper mast was being pummeled so hard.
I crawled out onto the foredeck and gathered up all the soggy gear and dumped it half onto the foredeck, into the forward hatch area and into the cockpit. Part of the broken mast stuck out of the forward hatch at a goofy angle and all the lines and gear looked like spaghetti piled on deck. It looked much like all those sailing disaster stories I collect.
Thankfully, Mr. Johnson started up right away. With our position on the lake and by the time we had drifted with our adventures, we had a nasty slog almost dead into weather. I was able to quarter the waves for the most part but was being quickly blown towards lee shore and shallow water. We had to head dead into the waves for quite a while just to make it out and around and back to the launch area. The motoring took about 40 minutes or an hour or so I think. We got slammed and soaking wet. Daphne was doing all the lashing down of loose canvas, bailing out the cockpit and closing of hatch boards and hatches. She was full time busy and did a fantastic job. She found time to put on her rain jacket and help me get mine on over my life jacket whilst handling the motor throttle and tiller. Quite and exciting ride I should say. At times as we crested those sharp short waves the forward third of the boat was out of the water. When she came back down a good part of the foredeck was under water. We took quite a few greenies over the windward quarter and got a proper soaking for sure. At one point a big solid wind blown bucket sized portion of a wave doused Daphne and I could hear her sharp intake of breath. Not a word of complaint or fear. I knew she was scared because I could see her hands shaking as she tried to unlash the halyards and get sail ties on the main. She still had her short pants and flip flops on. She was pretty damn cold, I could tell. There were times we had six inches of water in the cockpit.
Several times I thought to ask her for my camera from the cabin, but remembered the death of my beloved digital SLR last year. It does not take but a thimble full of water to kill a digital. So sorry, no action shots. Just after wreckage shots is all we have.
It was an interesting first day on the new lake to be sure.

On my way in and while negotiating the nifty wave action and wicked wind gusts that tried to spin us around, I wondered just why the rigging had become so slack. If it was tight there should have been no way the mast would have broken. While we were sailing in the earlier light wind conditions I noted and even mentioned to Daphne that the windward shrouds were pretty slack. This was to be expected because of the stretch of the new wire. The new turnbuckles were locked in place, so I knew they had not slacked off by themselves as my old turnbuckles used to do. But then during the worst of the shaking and violence I noticed the forestay was slack as well. By the time this nanosecond thought registered, the mast blew up….or down, as it were.

Here’s the thing. Once we got back to the dock and I was off the boat tying her up, I realized what happened. It was my fault; I was the victim of another one of my dumbness attacks. I left the dock without tightening up and locking my bobstay! For those going, “eh?”, the bobstay is a short length of chain (in our case) or cable that goes from a fixed point out to a fitting on the forward most end of the bowsprit on the under side and then down to the lower stem area of the hull just below the water line. This makes a solid triangle of tension and eliminates the flex and movement of the end of the bowsprit as the starting point of the forestay is attached in the same area just above where the bobstay attaches. So I am figuring what happened is with all the pressure and shaking of the rig the bowsprit was flexing as well. This combined with the slightly slack new shrouds, allowed the mast too much movement which caused the breakage.
That’s my story and I am sticking to it. And, I am making a permanent note to be affixed to a bulkhead in the cockpit to check the dam bobstay before sailing. I have forgotten it a time or two in the past but managed to tighten it up when I noticed it. This just happened to be the day that it should not have been forgotten.
As always with stuff like this, you are just thankful to make it back home without injuries or major discomfort. Things turned out well in the end. Mr. Johnson was a trouper and never skipped a beat. He saved the day. Mr. Johnson is the kind of motor that will work like a champ one day and decide to run on and off another day. He has always has done this. Right from new. I have purchased a carb rebuild kit and had planned to do the carb over the winter. With the big move a major changes over the last few months it got set aside. I just plunked him on the bracket with zero attention and added a bit of fresh fuel to the tank before we headed out. Luckily he started with the first couple of pulls for on the way out. Just like he usually does.He only died once during the short pull out into the lake before we set sail. Mr. Johnson never even sputtered once let alone quit when we needed him coming back in. What a blessing.
Oh, and just an opinionated opinion for other small boat sailors out there. If we had an electric motor like many folks use, we would have been blown ashore as sure as beer is blessed. Thanks for stopping by. Cheers.

Oh yes, Daphnes new hair. She had a hair misadventure and week or two ago. It somehow involved bleach, scissors, clippers and hair colouring. The result is a back to scratch deal. Looks good to me. It suits her new Urban image. ~:0)

Tim. June 11, 2006. Kelowna BC.