the wife and I were at the boat, adjusting the tension on our shrouds when we looked up and saw the most horrible sight a sailor could see. A mast was falling over on a boat one pier away from us....
We ran, and I mean ran over, Ellie calling to a couple of power boaters to come along.
When we got there, there was six of us, three sailors and three power boaters. The mast was uprooted and dangling in the water, we managed to get it up on the dock but it looks like an expensive repair. The hole where it was stepped was made out of fiberglass and looked kind of shredded. The turnbuckles looked new and not stripped of threads but so it looked like the turnbuckles unthreaded themselves on the starboard side.
The boat is a Contessa 26.
Funny thing, we put our mast up the day before and I wanted to put a different style of retainers in to prevent the turnbuckle from unthreading as the cotter pins in there theoretically could tear the sails. Ellie was extremely nervous about the turnbuckles having no restraints on them. I reassured her that there was no chance in the world that they could unscrew themselves.
What is it with life that it won't miss an opprtunity to show the world that my definitive statements are just so much smoke up my arse?
mental note to self; Listen to all that comes out of my wifes mouth, she is wise beyond the norm!
About Me
- Allan S
- Ex Canadian Navy, now work in a hospital, new to sailing after a twenty odd year hiatus. Married for 22 years with one 21 year old daughter starting her third year of university.
1 comment:
Actually I'm usually ditzy as hell and you know it but I guess I do have my moments of clarity and that was one of them....and the wild wind of the past few days really made me wary!!
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