Sharing a bit of a disaster and looking for some advice…

Sailing from Grenada to Carriacou yesterday, we lost our rig on Bonny Doon — a 2015 575 with a Selden mast, Furlerboom furling boom, and a Furlex headsail furler. Winds were moderate (18-21 kn) and seas were moderate (probably 2m). We were motor sailing with a double reef in the main and a sliver of jib out. As far as we can tell, the dismasting was triggered when the headstay broke at the sta-lok connector at the bow — there was a loud noise and we noticed the backstay dramatically sagging. For about 15-30 seconds, the jib halyard held everything together and we started to take the load off the rig (furling in the jib and starting to drop the main). Before we got too far though, the jib halyard broke, the jib came down, and then the mast snapped at deck level. The boom kicker and the gooseneck separated from the mast and we were left with the boom (after smashing into our dodger) sitting on the port gunwale — it’s complete but has some damage and would need repairs. The mast fell over the boom into the water off the port side while the furled jib fell onto the water on the starboard side. We spent what seemed like an eternity but was probably 10 minutes using hand tools and an angle grinder to disconnect the shrouds, cut the retaining lines, separate the mainsail from the boom, and cut through the furled jib just above the deck. The rig sank into the ocean but unfortunately we had managed to wrap some of the spinnaker halyard and the courtesy flag line around our prop so we couldn’t use the engine. The Grenada coast guard arrived after about an hour and spent three hours towing us back to St. George (THANK YOU Grenada Coast Guard!). After a diver came to remove the lines from our prop, we were able to make it safely back to dock. No one hurt and the hull intact — just some scratches in the gel coat on the port side hull and gunwale. 

We’re now thinking about repairs — both where to do it and what to the new rig should look like. If anyone has advice on the following, I’d love to hear from you…

- Rigging repairs in the Caribbean: we’re in Grenada now - any recommendations where to have repairs done? There is a local option but we’re also thinking about Trinidad, St. Lucia, or Martinique.

- Mast: is there a beefier option than Selden that we should be thinking about?

- Main furling: we’ve found the Furlerboom finicky (boom-mast angle needs to be perfect and the boat needs to be heading straight into wind to easily furl) and squeaky (big mass means lots of securing lines to stop it moving in rolly conditions). Are there better boom furling alternatives? Should we be thinking about mast furling instead (I have concerns about reduced sail performance and mast strength)?

- Headsail furling: I’ve learned that some furling options (e.g., ProFurl) rely on an independent headstay (e.g., with a swaged connector) instead of an integral stay using sta-lok connector. If anyone has had positive experience with ProFurl and specs on what works with a 575, I’d love to hear about it…

Any feedback much appreciated!!

-Mainer

 

Thanks for the feedback, Marsella. I actually got a call from Raphan this morning and we chatted things through. His perspective was that both boom and mast furling work but they have different strengths / weaknesses and it’s really a matter of personal preference. He offered to help us if we can get up to Antigua but didn’t think it would be feasible for him to try to do anything if we’re down in Grenada. 

Thanks for the sympathies! We haven’t had any changes made to the head stay or the rigging more generally since buying the boat three years ago. We had a rigging inspection done by our home yard in October before heading down to the Caribbean and they didn’t flag anything. Attached you’ll see what remains of the head stay within the sta-lok fitting. The inner core looks pretty corroded. It definitely has me inclined to replace the setup with one that uses a full swage fitting.

Question: about how many nautical miles were on the boat since new? 

in 2020, some expert but self-assured sailor kept running the electric winch badly to furl the jib. But the swivel at the top was not rotating, because the forestay was not tensioned enough...we stopped too late the brute force attempt. To a more careful analysis, we noticed that the furling jib swivel had transfered the rotation torque to the forestay, and the steel therefore unwound: it was visibly deformed in the area near to the swivel - see pictures. Story short: I had to replace the forestay, and since then i always start my furling manually - shifting to electric winch when i lose my breath.... the pictures explain more than a thousands words. 

My message: if you don't understand why it broke - point the finger towards the electric winch!

Scary story.

I had my rigging inspected (getting too old to be going up the mast) and it checked out but who knows?

Wondering if the spare spinaker halyard might have done something to help.  Rather than clipping it to the rail (or whatever),  would securing it to a deck fitting or the bowsprit d-ring have halped carry some of the load?

I recently made the calculation of the forces on the lateral rigging for my own understanding on how much heeling makes sense. I came to the conclusion that , on our boat , an upwind 35kt wind and heeling at 30 degrees nears the dynamic load limit (I used the momentum to right the boat to assess how much force is on the lateral rigging).

does anybody agree/disagree ?

He actually had removed the drum.    We were having some "fun" with it not rolling after a certain point.    I crawled into the sail locker... moved everything out of the way to get to the anchor locker (where our TD version sits of course) and couldn't figure it out.    No riding turns, no poor leads, etc..

It turned out there was some kind of rmovement for the drum that caused it and my rigger did the usual embarrassing "there... all set" with one 3-second move of his hands..  While there... he said "I might as well look at things"....

The old joke about $5 to actually do something and $400 to know what to do and where...

I'm very sorry to hear this. So relieved to learn of no injuries.

I have no helpful advice to contribute. I hope you are soon sorted. 

Best wishes

Richard

After ten years, at minimum annual rig inspections, and about 26,000 miles on my '16 505 Lilia, with regular offshore passages, and a few broken wires on a lower diagonal, my rigger strongly suggested I replace all the standing rigging. His rule of thumb was 15 years, or miles equivalent to a circumnavigation. The broken wires were in his opinion a warning - of potential corrosion hidden under all those fittings. 

Took his advice. Selden FL made up the new set at a reasonable cost One less thing to worry about for a few more years. 

hi Leon ,

scaring , isn't it ? and we perfectly know the difference between a rigging in PERFECT state and a real one. Corrosion , cable crimping: the weakest element of the chain will determine the global rigging failure .

I give you another hint for an interesting calculation: euler' s column buckling. compression load reduces the mast resistance to deflection ...

I have quite thought to it , this is the mode of failure of the mast when the static rigging fails or it is not well tuned .

...and going back to the rigging , add the other  dynamic forces now. A boat that heel under sailing has the mast pulling the boat forward. but a boat that heels significantly increases its drag, so beyond the lateral rigging the LONGITUDINAL rigging is under higher stress ...

I wouldn't mind if you could think to my calculation and find out if I got it right !

you can find it here :  https://galvanicworks.com/2026/02/10/heels-and-heeling-the-physics-of-looking-good-while-going-bad/" rel="nofollow - https://galvanicworks.com/2026/02/10/heels-and-heeling-the-physics-of-looking-good-while-going-bad/

I didn't say it yet , but all my kudos to Mainer. living and managing a dismasting is probably one of the top three stress events a sailor can undergo. you're now one of my involuntary heroes ! 🤣 

in preparation I had an electric disc cutter initially - but I found something better .

There is a very smart device that is a wire cutter that works like an hydraulic crick but it's mechanical . every time you close it completely , it becomes slightly smaller around the wire ...and cuts out wires like butter (I tried it ). it was suggested to me in south of France from an ex military sailor , I had never seen it before and I can't even find a name for it ...

it only works for wires , but I thought about myself with an electric disc cutter on deck in a storm  with cables swinging around ...worse than a horror movie, let's change channel  ...

addendum: as some of you may remember, I had a double steering cable failure last summer on my 2017 boat that required a pan pan. there is a common element here, and a lesson for all of us.

steel cables do corrode and suffer from fatigue ...fresh water washing, grease , inspection, inspection , inspection...

My wife and I took the US Sailing Safety at Sea course a couple of years ago and were very glad to have learned what’s likely to happen when a dismasting occurs and what to do about it. During the course, the instructors had hoped to show folks how to use a hydraulic line cutter (which is what I think you’re talking about, Piero). It turned out that they couldn’t find a functional cutter within a day’s drive of Marblehead, MA. FWIW, one of the things I had to do was to cut through the 5-inch diameter sausage formed by the furled jib wrapped around the furler foil. The angle grinder managed this quite well and I doubt the hydraulic line cutter would have done anything.

my device is not hydraulic but mechanical . said this , it would have miserably failed with the 5 inch sausage , thanks for the information !!!