25 thoughts on “Yachting Monthly’s Crash Test Boat Dismasting

  1. Great video – very informative thanks. I broke a mast recently in a laser. Different scale I know but the same issues – big surprise followed by “what do I do now.” Managed to sail downwind with scrap of sail and mast left standing.

  2. You should really cut them some slack here. This was a neat video which demonstrates what happens when a mast breaks. Of course they could have asserted that the mast would fall to leeward. Not a guarantee, but most likely the mast will ALWAYS fall to leeward with the sails up. They did a neat experiment and had to consolidate it down to a 15 min. video so that it is watchable. It had my attention the whole way through. TOO critical. You go make a video like this and then let me at the comments

  3. That wire was already half way hacked through if you look closely. It takes a while and it is frustrating to hack saw though 1×19. The best tool is probably the bullet blast thingy. Quick and effortless. The Hydraulic cutters are great but cost about $2k depending on what size wire you need to cut.

  4. If you intent is to provide a mast recovery exercise to novices, great.
    But if you are honestly looking to understand how or why a rig fails, perhaps you might apply a bit of science and engineering?
    Contrary to your introduction, it was entirely predictable that the rig would buckle at the lower shroud attachment point when it was in place and the upper shroud parted. It was also predictable that, given no backstay tension and under-trimmed jib, that the mast would fall to leeward. Get serious

  5. i thought it was interesting that the cheapest, nearly quickest and multi-use tool for cutting the stays was the hacksaw.

  6. by suprise is an under statement…… dismasted a 20 ft e-boat it was more than a suprise……

  7. I really love sailing, that sailboat and that condition -> I can look at this vid all day long!

  8. Nice movie!
    Please not that cutting nitronic rod is a complete different story, please watch this blog:
    blog.apsltd.com/2009/06/video-blog-holmatro-wirerod-cutters.html

  9. The bottom section goes as well due to the loss of the backstay? Higher on the wind, would the top section have come backwards and the babystay have kept the bottom section up? Obviously more dangerous for the test crew though…A fractional rig would probably just go at the spreaders.

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