Rust and Luck

This past Sunday was quite exciting. Not only did we get out for a brisk 3 hour sail in ideal conditions, we were de-masted in the narrow channel into the harbour!

We were coming in hot, doing perhaps 4 knots (quite fast for a little boat!) and we were going to be able to sail right in and tie up beautifully. There were several other larger boats coming and going, and we had just threaded our way into the chanel successfully when there was a strange creaking sound and a stay flew into the cockpit!

The mast was still standing, and after a quick look to make sure we were all right I tried to get the crew to take the main down and release the sheets, but it was too late; slowly but inevitably, the mast went over. As it went I admit I thought "oh, that's it then, the boat is finished."

We were being carried much closer to the rocks by the wind and waves, but I judged we had time to pull things in before really needing to go to the oars, so pull in we did. The mast, boom and sails were all pulled in by the crew while I did my best to keep the boat going away from the rocks. Once we had everything in we were spared the troublesome task of rowing in the crippled boat by an offer of a tow - which we gladly accepted.

Once into the dock, to my amazed surprise, it appeared as if the deck and hardware were all undamaged! The only thing that had truly failed was a cotters pin holding the port stay clevice pin on! the fairlead to the active sheet had broken, and the runner had come off it's track - but it turned out that both had been designed with plastic parts and liners so as to fail gracefully without damaging the hull - a successful failure!

After a quick trip to The Rigging Shoppe, which I found to be fully stocked with excellent hardware, I had adequate replacements and was ready to put the mast back up!

A few days later, My Uncle Dave and I put the mast up and the Snapping Turtle was ready to sail again! All things considered I think I got to learn a valuable lesson about putting off mainenance pretty ridiculously cheaply! I swear I'll never wait to replace a rusty pin again!