SV 'SQUANDER' rigging failure off NZ.

[DumnMad]

Unfavourable wind, not enough fuel and after trying hard crew finally set off the EPIRB and were rescued.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12240944

[Paul L]

Sounds like all are safe.
Too bad the container ship couldn't have floated some diesel down to them.

[Paul L]

Message reporting the initial damage

Thu Jun 13 2:18 2019 NZST
Run: 12.6nm (22.8km)
30 45.989s 178 02.290e

Weather: slight seas light winds
mast rig failure, jury rig 3 shrouds, unable to continue under sail, motoring back to NZ. Emergency services notified and monitoring. All well aboard as well as can be expected.

14.15m Jeanneau, Sun Odyssey, masthead cutter rigged sloop. White with blue trim. Manufactured in France 2003.

[DumnMad]

Here is their YIT web page with their messages.

https://www.yit.nz/yacht/squander?year=2019

[stevensuf]

I wonder if the boat had its original standing rigging?

[DumnMad]

And here's their story.
Are they're saying chainplate or lower tang failed ??
Good sailing conditions so must have been metal fatigue.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/a...ectid=12241188

[boatman61]

Its a deck stepped mast.. what I think they are saying is the mast support failed at the base.. but journo's are prone to getting it wrong.

[Paul L]

It doesn't sound like chainplate failure from the description

A steel rod connecting a metal plate at the base of the mast to the boat's superstructure snapped late on the afternoon on June 12, leaving the mast lurching and cracks and splits appearing in the deck.

At that moment, the only bit of luck the crew would have for next few days occurred.

"The wind dropped straight away, it started raining and the sea went glassy," Petrie said.

This gave Petrie and his crew the chance to connect ropes to the mast and run them under the boat to create tension that held the mast in place.

[El Pinguino]

Not sure how the lowers... its always the lowers .. are attached to the chain plates on that class but I would suggest failure of either the turnbuckle, the fitting ( a 'staple' on my boat ) where it passes through the deck, or a T-ball at the mast ( but no mention of anyone going aloft to set up a jury stay ) .

I've had an 8 year old T-ball fail and a 4 year old 'staple' fail... both on the lowers...

[boatman61]

From his description it seems the ropes were take from the base of the mast under the hull both sides and tensionned to stabilise the mast base when the mast support failed.. trying to keep the down pressure centralised along with the foot of the mast.. would explain minimum sail area in effort to maintain headway and minimize mast load.
Brave effort..

[DumnMad]

Reading again it does seem the rigging held but mast base failed as Boatie says.
It was a good effort
They even got a ship to deliver fuel so they could motor the remaining distance, but, difficult to control a loose mast base in lumpy seas and squalls.

[Franziska]

If they had a ship to deliver fuel, why did they not dump the mast and/or set the boom or spi boom as jury rig?

Seems better than abandoning the yacht. Still not sure if they felt to exposed for that option.

[El Pinguino]

Boat is still on AIS.... about 60 miles offshore from Great Barrier.... quite salvagable if the weather continues to behave.

If the mast step/base is the same as my Selden one then slack or broken stays would let the mast jump off the base... it is about a half inch lip.
This from the loss of a sistership to mine..
'there was a loud bang, on deck the D part of the lower starboard rigging deck plate had sheared at the bolts and the starboard lower shroud was whipping back and forth like a viper on steroids. I quickly attached the spinnaker pole topping lift to the centre cleat and tried to tie the swinging shrouds bottle screw with ropes to same but the ropes kept breaking as soon as a new one was tied, iris went below and got the spare shackles bag. This whole new nightmare was a replay of a couple of weeks ago except this time the deck plate had gone and there was nowhere to attach the shroud to. The mast was now bending like a deranged banana and jumping up and down off the deck with me holding on to the shroud for all I was worth, the motion of the boat wasn’t helping as each time it rolled to starboard I was slowly rolling off the side of the boat,"
You can find that buried in here.. https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/p...s.24660/page-3

[DumnMad]

Interesting Ping.
Must be common enough to disturb NZ authorities because before getting clearance for going offshore they made me insert bolts to prevent the possibility of the mast jumping out.

[Tillsbury]

Originally Posted by Franziska

If they had a ship to deliver fuel, why did they not dump the mast and/or set the boom or spi boom as jury rig?

Seems better than abandoning the yacht. Still not sure if they felt to exposed for that option.

Yes, they’d already made 300nm under engine and had 160 litres of fresh diesel so plenty of fuel. What else are the boltcutters for? Once they had the liferaft out in what were described as pretty calm conditions that morning they could have let the mast go and motored on, surely? 90 miles to great barrier and an anchorage.

I guess we’ll never know