Half Moon E-28 Dismasted Video

On the second Saddleback College Seamanship cruise for the Spring 2006 class, MST 214B and 215, the Ericson 28 Half Moon was dismasted when the forestay broke. Best estimate of the cause is that the jib halyard had been wrapped around the top of the forestay for some time making the sail difficult to roll up, inviting others to put the furling line on a winch, and which this crew did as well, causing the wire stay to finally part. The deck-stepped mast tipped backward coming to rest on the stern pulpit, and was prevented from rolling overboard by the outboard motor mounted inches away. No injuries were sustained.

See Video, Go to:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1082742650267709470&q=Ericson+Sailing&hl=en

I like how it reads near the end of the video, "Never put a furling line on a winch"! Thought that was funny. Apologies and Sympathy to who ever you are Half Moon. Hope Half Moon's back up!

Halyard Retainer

Sad to see that. A good way to encourage boat owners to invest in a jib halyard retainer for furler equipped boats. Which reminds me, I should check my jib halyard again since I haven't added a retainer yet.

Dumb question but whats a jib halyard retainer? I am thinking maybe the fairlead I see some have added to the very top of the mast to lead the jib halyard back towards the mast? I have a Profurl unit and it has an anti-wrap device built in so no way the halyard can wrap. Seems to work great. RT

Yep, that's what it is - an anti-wrap device. They are either a smooth curved stainless piece, or it may have a roller, that attaches to the mast. You route the halyard under it and that gets the halyard away from the headstay at the top. Increasing the angle between the headstay and the halyard to around 45 deg. is usually what they achieve with them.

A Worthwhile Project...

Yeah, I used to get 'halyard wrap' sometimes also... The preventer was on my list of things to do - #348j, to be exact...



//sse