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Free Spirit - An eventful 24 hours! (Free Spirit 62)



We had a very useful reminder a couple of days back on the way things tend to go wrong when sailing - in a series of events, rather than one-off incidents, which in this instance left us scrambling for 12 hours to get the upper-hand back, and to be very thankful now that we're sailing smoothly towards our destination! Apologies for the length of this post, its partly a file note!

Our problems kicked off on the evening of Tue 3rd. We had been enjoying a steady 12 - 15 knot breeze more or less directly behind us for several hours, and as night fell, we thought we'd set up for the evening by sailing directly downwind goose-winged, with our main sail out port side and the genoa, supported by the spinnaker pole to keep it stable, on the starboard. Our pole is (now was!) too long to do this job at right angles to the mast (its designed to support the much larger kites we're sailing with) so with all hands on deck, we mounted it on an angle to the mast with lines above and below keeping it firmly in place. This set the gennie satisfactorily, although we noticed the sheet (rope back to the cockpit of the boat from the rear of the sail) was rubbing on our wire life-lines, so we set about running the second gennie sheet around in front of the mast back down the windward side, re-fastening it beneath the life-lines where it should be and relieving the first.

As seems to be the way at sea, our problems started with a rapid change in conditions. It was now quite dark (there is no moon at the moment) and as the sheet was being swapped over, the wind gusted quickly to over 20 knots, and backed so that it was coming over our starboard side. The boat heeled over and rounded (up into the wind), the gennie started flogging, and the pole started moving out of position, swinging towards the bow. Two of the crew moved to secure the now swinging pole, whilst the diesel engine was turned on, a safety measure so that we could be kept heading into the breeze if necessary, spilling wind from the sails whilst the pole was stabilised. As the wind gusted up however, the pole was torn by the flogging gennie from the hands of the two men on the bow, and wrapped backwards around the starboard stay (steel rod holding the mast up) and the carbon fibre pole snapped neatly in the middle, spilling debris over the boat, thankfully not hitting anyone...

The call was made to drop the mainsail, and the diesel was put into gear, bringing the bow into the wind. The main dropped quickly about half-way, then snagged on a spreader, and started flogging. Of more concern though was the diesel stalled immediately and wouldn't re-start, so we were blown back around to port. Moreover, the boat was not responding to steering inputs, the steering wheel was stuck fast with the rudder was jammed in one position. The gust front heeled us over again and turned us back before the wind and we started accelerating before she rounded again and we managed to clear the main, dropping it the rest of the way to the boom, where it was quickly tied down. The boat slowed to 1 -2 knots, and we wallowed in the 2m swell whilst we collected ourselves and assessed the situation. After ensuring no-one was hurt, we turned our attention to the diesel. The most common reason for a stalled diesel is rope wrapped around the prop-shaft, and we quickly searched for the second 16mm gennie sheet, which sure enough had come loose and was running over the starboard side and under the boat, pulled tight. That was almost certainly the source of our engine issues, but the rudder problem was less clear, we thought the rope was probably wrapped around that also. After about 30 mins discussing the right game plan, Mark went over the side rigged with harness, safety rope and waterproof headtorch to assess the damage. After a quick inspection we learnt the bad news. Not only were a number of loops of rope wrapped around the prop shaft, the shaft itself had slid backwards from the engine, and the still folded prop (it had never spun up to open) had jammed backwards into the leading edge of the rudder, taking a chunk out of it and holding it firm. This was a major blow - the power of the diesel could well have created a very jammed situation, and with the relatively light tools on-board, might be very difficult to rectify.

Again we had an in depth discussion to discuss various strategies. We elected in the end to restrict our activities that evening to rigging a sea-anchor to keep us bow into the 2m swell and a bit more comfortable, and to wait it out until day-break when we'd be able to make a much safer and more accurate assessment of the issues and possible solutions.

After an uncomfortable and reasonably sleepless night, we reconvened over breakfast to plan the approach. We did not focus on the downside although it was in the back of all of our minds - without steering and a diesel, we were stuck drifting at a little under 1 knot across the Atlantic, albeit in the right direction for St Lucia - we did 8 miles drifting that night, we'd make it in 5 months :) Assistance of a mechanical kind is not easy to find in the Atlantic, and a 1000 mile tow from a passing vessel is a very big ask, it certainly ruins someone's ARC although I'm sure there are precedents and we'd do the same if asked... We have an angle grinder (with one disc only) and we thought we might conceivably be able to cut a section out of the prop shaft and slide the remainder back towards the motor, clearing the rudder. Alternatively we might be able to remove the prop to free the rudder, although without diving gear and with the boat wallowing and slapping down hard at the stern as each swell passed, that would not be easy. We could also rig a jury rudder potentially, the main rudder was at least stuck amidships.

We lifted the inspection hatches to the prop-shaft inside the boat, where we could see the lateral movement of the prop-shaft, out of the back of the gear-box. This, we concluded, was a safety feature of the boat, to ensure the diesel is not damaged by stalling suddenly if the prop is fouled - it moves laterally and releases a clutch, although presumably this was supposed to only take place when folding prop was open and not at risk of hitting the rudder. The better news was that we could rotate the prop-shaft by hand, move it laterally, and withdraw it about 20mm towards the engine. A quick visit to the helm confirmed that this had freed the rudder!! That raised an immediate cheer, at least we could sail!! We then did another diving mission to inspect the rope problems. Around 6 wraps of rope were caught around the prop-shaft, holding it tightly in place. Fortunately the gennie sheets are thick line and the rope hadn't become bound tightly nor damaged the shaft or mounts that we could see. After 10 mins the rope was pulled clear, cause for another cheer! We then fired the diesel up, eased it into forward and the prop spun open and the shaft finished its lateral movement back into the clutch. We then gently popped it into reverse with no problems, confirming that the lateral movement was indeed a safety feature, and designed to operate that way...

With much relief and back-slapping we hoisted our sails and got under way again, conscious we'd lost 100 miles overnight, but highly relieved we were able to sort the problem out. The broken pole has been re-configured as a jockey pole which will only be usable with the gennie - its unlikely we'll be able to fly the spinakers without the pole, which will take about 20% off our boat speed with the wind behind us, and add a day or two to our trip. Its a good reminder of the way in which problems can compound quickly when at sea however, and the benefits of slowing everything down, breaking the sequence and then tackling the problems one by one :)

Cheers, Alistair

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