absolute kaos breaking mast during a race

on board video of absolute kaos, a dash 34, breaking its mast in the last leg of the last race in the VARC closer regatta for 2006.

warning: audio is bad, and loud. turn down the volume!

crew:
katerina - runners
reigh - driver
tom - main
trevor - trim
kim - trim
ross - pit
bj - mast
doug - foredeck
stewart - observer

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• VARC
• vancouver
• yachting
• racing
• sailing
• sailboat
• regatta
• absolute
• kaos

[biscayforce12]

So, who didn't put the port runner on as the boom went across?. And why wasn't the backstay at least taking some of the pressure?. It's a basic maneuver that the cockpit crew got wrong. Bad luck, better luck next time.

[absolutekaos]

runner was on. no backstay on the rig. no matter, it was two years ago and we have a mumm 30 rig in the boat now. carbon is a wonderful thing. boat is much faster now. we run mastheads where with the wet noodle we could only do frac kites. we've won boat of the year twice since putting the new rig in.

[JRC808]

from wat i see it broke a t the spreader prob. b/c where corrosion is common

[absolutekaos]

nope, it broke about 10 feet off the deck, well below the first spreader. people on other boats say they saw the mast bend as far forward as the bow, then snap back and break. it was pretty much shock loading.

[gourge30]

oh man- losing sticks sucks

hope no one was hurt- backstay give out?

[absolutekaos]

the video is bad, but we caught a double gust in the middle of the gybe. running backstay was on. we think the mast took two hard shocks from the gusts.

everyone was fine. carbon mast coming as a replacement.

better quality video is being worked on. i haven't done video editing in a long time.

[t00erinator01]

never seen it happen under tose circumstances.

And on another note, fix that audio, my ears hurt after the 2nd i reacted to mute

[rollingride]

bad luck man, gotta be quick on runners to get outta that

[fabriciobraga]

The real sailor's nightmare...

Amazing video.

[biscayforce12]

Your reasoning I accept. The pressure in a hard puff before the boat can respond is huge and, looking at the footage whilst you were going uphill, it was pretty breezy. I'm sorry that I doubted the ability of the crew. Congratulations on your wins and have a great season this year.

[Karletto555]

@bj... beer for me ^^

[paprykp10]

Just because... O_o eh...