What Can Happen On a Very Windy Day

Every now and then San Diego can get an unusual amount of wind. Usually due to Santa Ana conditions or when we get a pressure systems that changes. Whatever the reason may be, it

makes for some interesting boat accidents mostly due to pilot error or gear failure.

We recently had gusty conditions reaching 26 kts+ and I was able to catch a couple of stories

that happened to two boaters locally.

This accident could have been fatal, because the mast came crashing down within seconds

under full sail and narrowingly missed the two crewman aboard this Newport 30.

There were a few strikes against him as to the reason behind the mast failure.

First thing we noticed is the rigging looked to be original. 1973 ...yeah I think it well

past expiration date! But that's not what caused the problem.

The original chainplate was cast out of aluminum.

The chainplate cracked in half right at the eye that accepts

the pin for the forestay.

The lower aftstay unable to carry the load ripped right

off the deck giving the owner a near heart attack as it

came crashing down within fractions of a second.

Upon closer inspection of the composite material, we

noticed a few flaws in the construction and hardware.

The balsa wood that made up the sandwich construction

was weakened by years of previous leaks making it fragile. And it would have been better to have a beefier

backing plate for the stay too.

Once we were able to speak to the owner , we also

came to the conclusion that he was over sailed. We

see this over and over again. He was flying a 135 in

conditions that would be more suitable for a lapper

(90-100)% headsail. Several gear failures are simply

due to having to much sail up for your boat.

Fortunately for this boater he had good insurance and is getting all these issues taken care of.

Why boats sink...it's easier than you think

This happened on the same day. This is a well known

race boat named Eclippse. the accident took place

during a local race and I believe that it happened around the marker.

There are many different ways in which a boat can

reach it's demise. But one normally has the vision

of a dramatic collision of some sort tearing a gaping

hole into the boat caused by a run in with an object

such as a buoy or another boater -God willing.

Most "sinkings" or shall we say "near" sinkings

actually happen in the slip. Take in case this partial

flooding that happened to an owner of a 36 ft. sailboat.

The owner had taken his boat to a yard and pulled to

have a new brass thru hull put in and had other worked performed as many boaters do. He had hired a contractor to install an new (pass thru) inverter. After returning to his slip, the unit was already showing signs of being improperly installed.

Frustrated with the inverter, the owner decided to uninstall it and re-connected

the wires. Upon doing so he had crossed the wires. Within as little as two weeks, his

brand new brass thru hull fitting had completely corroded. How could this happen?

Two words.....stray corrosion. This is not to be confused with "galvanic" corrosion.

Stray current corrosion acts quickly. It's an induced electrical current that when left

unchecked will eat at the weakest metal on your boat ,as in this case ,the thru hull.

Had the thru hull been plastic, it would have probably then attacked the prop.

Luckily the surveyor (Billy Fox) was able to quickly dissect the cause before the

thru hull valve had fallen off.

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