23h30, Monday 20th May, 60 to 70nm off Bermuda. Earendil, a Grand Soleil 37, was sailing comfortably close-hauled on port tack in 15/18 knots true wind, in a moderate sea, heading East about 40 degrees off the wind. Pierre the skipper was on watch, when suddenly the forestay toggle broke, sending the genoa flying up in the air. Then, after what seemed an eternity to Pierre, there was a loud cracking noise, followed by a second and the mast fell on top of the spray hood; broken at the foot. Thierry and Julien were quickly on deck, woken by the noise.  With the rolling motion of the boat, the mast has now slipped onto the guardrail on the starboard side and is threatening to puncture the deck. They grabbed the bolt croppers from the starboard cockpit locker, only to find out that the 4 month old tool has completely rusted and is unusable. They decide to cut off the shrouds, back stay and halyards with the hacksaw. Fortunately, Pierre has the habit of changing the split pins and exercising the bottle neck screws on the shrouds every two months and therefore the task is accomplished very quickly. The halyards being still under load from the sails, they must be cut off with extreme caution so as not to injure anyone. The mast is now free, ready to be pushed into the ocean. Not an easy task.
The weight of the mast together with the added weight of the water filling the sails means that even the three of them are unable to move the mast. They must release the top guardrails, still held by the now bent stanchions. The final phase of releasing the rig, or so they thought, was to saw through the last guardrail and let the mast drop over the side. However, some cables and part of the vang got snagged on the lower guardrail, leaving the mast in a position near the waterline and in danger of puncturing the hull. It took some more cutting to finally release the rig and let it drop into the ocean.
Being only 60 miles from Bermuda, all that was left to do was to inform World Cruising Club in Cowes, who then called the ARC Europe team still in St George's, and motor back to port. Earendil arrived at 09h00 in Bermuda and is alongside St George's Dinghy and Sports Club, to begin the process of assessing the damage and organizing repairs or shipping back to France. |