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.
10 comments:
And this year's annual "moth mast muncher" award goes to: Flutter! :P
I'd need to see pics of the mast without the sail, but it looks like it broke at the sleeve - did you lecky-tape the join to try and stop the top section rotating? The reason I say that is some of these sticks are a bit isotropic, so perhaps the top section rotated at the joint and load was put on a bit of the stick that wasn't meant to have load on it?
Perhaps this is a sign of the rig saying "put me on a new boat already damnit!"
Hey mate
Naa the top section broke into 3 pretty much equal bits. I'd say the sections were alligned because the controls were on a bit. The angled join is good like that.
I think it was a combination of spreaders not set up right and stiffness in the wrong place.
Nick
Bad Luck.
I am trying to work out why it broke but have no idea. Are the cams wearing the mast? However the break looks like it is in a different place...
yep theyre different spots. the mast was brand new there was no wear on it at all (had clear plastic patches taped to it from day 1). the old one broke at a spot where there was some wear, but not on a cam of the ka sail, it was wear from my old sail. so i spose that means that batten load didnt have much to do with it. the more i think about it it seems it was to do with the spreaders straightening the bottom section too much.
How are you transporting the mast? What are the supports like?
its a 2 piece mast, so i was transporting it in its padded bladerider mast bag, inside the car. nowhere for it to get crunched cos it fits in there pretty well, on top of the seats. i checked it out when i got it and there was no sign of damage and every sign that it had been well looked after.
Is there anything in the pocket luff that could be pushing against the mast, like a rock or similar? I find it hard to believe that two masts can break like that in similar locations under downhaul loads and a bad spreader geometry, especially above the hounds, without outside assistance so to speak.
My guess is your prodder is too long making the bottom of the mast straight or inverted which means the top is trying to do all the bending and failing under the load.
yeh i reckon thats the reason.
burville top section is already being guled back together using my old mast as sleeves. ill make my spreaders adjustable and very carefully rig up and see what the adjustment does.
Brett said i was one of 4 lucky mothies out of about 300 who've bought his masts to break one!
Nick I don't have a clue what you are all talking about. I just see a broken stick and think" Nuthins changed, Flutters stuffed up again". But I see where with the dude with the three missing front teeth was coming from.
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