Wind damage on our mooring

[inspectr]

Been a month or so since I went and checked out the boat - she sits on a Public Mooring in Double Bay in Sydney's spectacular harbour. I'd driven by between distractions (work and a new grandson) and looked from afar, but when I got there today the boat was a shambles!
We had an East Coast Low last weekend, very strong onshore winds, 5.0M swell and heavy seas, but Double Bay is reasonably sheltered.
The boat has lazy jacks and a boom bag which I had removed and made some repairs to the stitching a couple of months ago. As I approached the boat aboard the tender I noticed that the boom was swinging back and forth and one side of the lazy jacks was loose, gone.
Once on board I realised that the boom had come away from the mast fitting and was swinging loose, supported by the main halyard attached to the boom end and the Selden gas vang, and one side of the lazy jacks provided minimal support.
What appears to have happened was that in the storms, the preventers on the boom had become loose, (I now realise that when re-instating the boom bag and lazy jacks I had loosened them and not re-tensioned and double knotted the lines.) I think the main traveller lines also escaped their cam-cleats
The boom had been swinging from side to side, had loosened the lines on the main traveller, shaken loose the main sheet which had been shredded and was thoroughly jammed in the 80mm Lewmar racing blocks of the main sheet.
Also from the boom swinging from side to side, the Selden gas strut vang had destroyed the lashings and the lines securing the liferaft to the hydrostatic valve release assembly. That at least was an easy fix.
After raising the sail (fortunately no wind this morning) I had to remove the boom bag, and rig some supports for the boom. I was lucky to find the 10mm pin of the gooseneck fitting jammed beside the genoa track, this is a poor piece of design, where the pin has a 2.5mm split pin through the middle as the only means of securing the pin. The pin has sheared off level with the top of the pin, and the lower section had dropped out - found that. With the exaggerated swinging back and forth the two sides of the boom fitting have been pushed a little outwards and the fitting is loose. This critical pin then worked its way loose and fell out.
I'm going to drill the 10mm pin to 12mm and fit a bolt, nylock nut and washers or even a castellated nut with monel wire to make sure that this does not happen again.
Removing the boom vang was easy, but again the little split pin that "secures" the upper pin to the boom connection just fell apart as I removed it - corrosion?
Next job is to get up the mast and resurrect the lazy jack lines to the starboard side. The port side stayed in place, partially supporting the boom and possibly preventing it from being lost
Fortunately the main sheet was long enough to allow it to be end for ended and the shredded section could be cut off, whipped and heat sealed - that was an easy job as well.
I am pretty shocked that the security of the boom connection relied totally on a 2.5mm stainless steel split pin?

I am a bit embarrassed that not being on the boat for the best part of 6 weeks might have been the cause to what was a preventable incident causing quite a bit of damage

Lessons learnt

1. Check split pins
2. Once a week on the boat with my eyes open
3. Check split rings that secure critical pins
4. Check shackle pins - a few were lost over the last few days due to wind and flogging

At least no Blood spilt!

[tkeithlu]

Hey, it's not just blood. You didn't approach in your tender and wonder where your boat was.... Thanks for sharing.

[ozsailer]

Hi Inspectr,
as in the previous post its could have been a lot worse. Leaning to sail or boat is just more than motoring and sailing. Leaving your boat secure etc is all part of the learning curve. We have all been through it (and continue to learn). Something I would also add to your list is tie your boom more securely. I have a clutch system that secures the traveller but I also add a second line from the back of the boom to another point so that I have two seperate tie down points. I also used a line from each pt and stb rear cleat to the boom and secure. Very postive tie points.


Greg H
Lagoon 440.