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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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Food for thought

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Todd Frye
Navigator

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USA
222 Posts

Initially Posted - 04/28/2004 : 19:08:00

I decided to swing by the harbor today during my lunch hour as the weather folks were talking high winds. When I got there, the harbor was frothy and the boats in their slips were really pounding against the walkways. There is a beautiful Capri 26 next to me whose spreader bar was getting awfully close to mine in the high gusts. That seemed really odd, and as I checked things out, noticed about a 4 foot flex in the middle of his mast. On the Capri there are only two shrouds per side, an upper and a lower, and the lower had parted at the turnbuckle. I really thought with all that mass in the Capri mast, that the gusty winds (the nearby muni airport clocked winds gusting to 60mph) would just overpower the upper shroud and my boat would catch his mast amidships, as well as the power boat on the other side of me. I came aboard the Capri without permission, secured the jib halyard to the shroudless turnbuckle and threw on some quick half hitches as a temporary help to keep the mast from flexing so much. This bought me some time to run up to the visitors center and get the ranger to phone the owner and bring some help. When the Capri owner arrived we tied off the main halyard to a life line stanchion, and clamped a vice grip pliers onto the broken shroud and did a come-along set up to that shroud which seemed to help. Once that was under control, we adjusted fenders on other boats that were getting clobbered and wrapped a few main sail covers back over their sails. I want to share this with the board so that, as this experience has graphically shown, when bad stuff happens, am I ready? I think with the C-25, having 3 shrouds per side, we are probably a little safer than the Capri. The best temporary fix we came up with was one of those U clamps, that are made for securing wire, attached to the loose end of the broken shroud, which was secured to the free turnbuckle with a come-along. Not too pretty but it seemed to work. As a parting observation, this was the first time any of us had gotten spray in the face, at 15 degrees tilt, while still in the slip. Fair winds. Todd Frye

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Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 04/28/2004 : 22:46:30

That's why I'm putting new standing rigging on this year--all the way around. You just don't know until it happens. If a failure like that had happened with half that wind under sail, it could have been much more exciting!

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Champipple
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
6855 Posts

Response Posted - 04/29/2004 : 08:14:13

That's why we went with the larger diameter standing rigging all the way around two years ago!

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">it could have been much more exciting<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I was sitting on the rail to leeward of a boat (j-105) that had that happen right at the start.... I am not sure it was as exciting as it was frightening... If those cables pop they do it with a lot of force, and if you are in the way, I could only guys it will either "leave a mark" or slice like a hot knife through water....

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osmepneo
Past Commodore

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USA
1420 Posts

Response Posted - 04/29/2004 : 11:28:38

When I was a kid we were racing Dad's Dragon from Sodus Bay to Rocjester, when we lost the starboard shrods. Jonny the guy on the helm, had the boat around in a heart beat and sailed on port tack back to Sodus. Waves drowned the ob, so we had no choice but to sail. It was a harrowing experience. But during the whole thing I didn't feel a bit of anxiety of fear. That winter, we replaced the rigging!

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austin72
1st Mate

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48 Posts

Response Posted - 04/30/2004 : 12:00:02

Duane,
What diameter rigging did you put on? I saw the 'standard' on Catalina Direct for $400, so I figure if I'm going to spend that much, I agree it makes sense to drop the extra cash for peace of mind.
Also, would you recommend putting larger stay plates on at the same time?

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.