Lake St Clair: Rig Down in the first race of the season
QUOTE-UNQUOTE: "First race of the year, sailing pretty conservative. Going upwind in ~15 knots of breeze with our #3 jib. Puff comes on and it sounded like a gunshot went off. The mast snapped at the base and all went toppling over to leeward. We were only in 20 feet of water, the mast pinned us in place as we slowly but surely reeled in everything starting with the jib and the forestay, the shrouds, the bottom piece of the mast, then we were able to get the mainsail and mast up next to the boat secured in a position where we could motor back to shore. Back at shore we used the club's gin pole to pluck the mast from the water beside the boat and onto the lawn." –Post on Reddit's sailing sub-reddit about an incident in an evening race on Lake St. Clair (between Detroit and Windsor, Ont) in an evening race earlier this week. Apparently no injuries, thank goodness. Rigging failure? Bad tube? Mast not set up right when put in the boat? Trying to track down the author and yacht involved, if anyone can help. Great photos.
