The photos say it all really. 2 out of 3 attempts to go for a sail have had me in my gear, getting ready to lift the boat in the water and this. First my old mast, below the hounds, so i put it down to age or cracks or something. Today's victim was a bladerider mast that had been used twice. im not sure why its happening - maybe i had too much vang on or something when the boat was leaning over. but it was well and truly eased from where id have it sailing, like at 30%. same with cunningham, at say 40%. maybe my spreaders are keeping the bottom section too straight. but how do you tell that? there was about 50mm of 'kink' in the forestay after the mast broke, no idea what it had before. maybe my rig tension was too much, but i doubt it. maybe i crushed it last time i sailed in like 20 - 25kts, maybe a manufacturing flaw (but the new one broke in 2 places) maybe i broke it when i cranked the cunningham while rigging , boat upright, to see how flat i could get the sail for the windy day. but i have 2 less purchases on that than lots of people, and i didnt go past the red line on the mast. maybe its because this mast was different to the standard ones, apparently having a stiffer top section, and that stiff section couldnt take the bend that i put on it with the long front prodder. but then why did the last one break that the spreaders were designed for? surely there is more load when your out sailing...
anyway id be interested to know if anyone has seen this before, and whether, when you rest the boat on the mast, there is a common law that you let the control lines completely go.
to top it off i got yelled at (and told to fuck off) by some RQYS voulenteer with 3 missing teeth, who was at me to move my car when i was packing away the broken bits in despair. a great day in sunny queensland.
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