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Date: Sat Jul 31, 2004
Subject: Stay pin sheared
Was sailing in Dauphin Island this week and couldn't get the boat to back
away
from the landing and wound up in rocks and sand on the bank, so I was going to
get out and walk the boat back over to the dock. I went to the bow and holding
onto the stay, stepped over the rail to lower myself into the water. I heard a
loud snap, fell into the water backwards, and when I surfaced, heard the mast
crashing down. Working through my disgust at the site of my mast lying across
my bimini, which was amazingly unharmed, I located the stay in the jumble of
lines and wires. The "stainless steel" pin that I had paid several dollars for
was rusted, not corroded at the point where it broke. I had noticed that it
merely looked corroded when I had attached it a few days before, but never
suspected that it would have broken. Luckily I had spares and even luckier that
I wasn't offshore when this happened. After I got the mast back up, I found
there was no damage anywhere except to my fancy horn I have installed to my
cabin hatch top.
<http://www.madwand.org/Boat/horn.htm>
Bummer. But it could have been a lot worse.
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