'Catastrophic' mast failure

[Paul Flint]

Dear Forum Members

With my CC19 'Chunky Monkey' (2008 build) finally on the water and a great weather forecast, I sailed early yesterday from Whitehaven towards Kirkcudbright, motoring at first in very light airs in a bit of a swell, and then the wind picked up to E2 gusting F3 on the beam. Perfect to make some progress under sail.

30 minutes after hoisting the jib and main sails catastrophe struck and suddenly the jib was in the water ahead of the boat. Thinking I had failed to tie the halyard sufficiently I glanced up and found that the mast, immediately above the ‘steel band’ (non-nautical description) had snapped clean away and was now in the water attached by various ropes, and that the gaff was drooping to boom level. It all happened in a split second with no real discernible noise.

I have owned Chunkey Monkey for three years. The mast seemed sound and had been varnished by the previous owner and over the last winter by me, and I had sealed the top to minimize water ingress. Beneath the white masthead paint, however, the mast had clearly rotted and lost its integrity internally. It took me 45 minutes to recover the ‘mess’, in a rolling swell, and ready the boat to motor back the 10 or so miles to Whitehaven, aware that if the conditions had not been so benign the outcome could have been much worse and that I had enjoyed only three hours of the sailing season, Plus I now need a new mast! My boat will be lifted out of the water tomorrow, at which point I will be able to check the top of the mast in more detail.

I have glanced through posts on this site and, by chance, last year I met David Peck when sailing the Walton Backwaters and learned about his excellent carbon mast on 'Whistling Rufus'. The wooden Honnor Marine mast is so heavy it verges on impracticable for single-handed aging sailors like me, but that said I have developed – as other owners have done – an efficient mast-hoisting and lowering system. The HM mast also adds considerable top-weight to the boat, whereas by contrast David’s carbon option makes his CC19 much stiffer and more stable to sail. This could well be the time, therefore, for me not to replace like-with-like, but to upgrade my CC19. But at what cost?

Drawing on the wealth of knowledge on this forum, does anyone have recent experience of considering mast options for CC19s? Perhaps there are three to consider:

a) A like-for-like HM replacement.
b) A ‘birdsmouth’ constructed mast (does anyone make these for CC19s?).
c) A carbon mast (are these always bespoke designs from one-off companies or are they available now as a standard CC19 option?).

My knowledge of options (b) and (c) is extremely limited and I suspect there may be considerable differences in cost.

Any advice would be very welcome and probably helpful also to other CC19 owners. Perhaps this a warning also, where possible, to check if our CC19 masts are as strong and durable as we hope.

Many thanks!

Paul
paul.flint@hotmail.co.uk

[Justin Greig]

My mast has rotted at the hounds as well. She is no 20 so she would have had an SA mast, but as my mast is solid, I think she must have had an HM one fitted at some point in her life. Anyway, when doing my winter varnishing last year I noticed a bit of worrying cracking around the hounds, so with some difficulty I removed the band and found a deep area of decay below. I posted some photos on the whatsapp group at the time. I am now sailing the boat with the gaff halyard block on the hounds, a couple of reefs in the main and no yankee. So the top section of the mast is not under any kind of strain. I am sure that I am only a whisker away from complete failure.

I have of course been looking for a replacement. Lee Fuller recently replaced Kira's mast with a wooden Collars mast. Kira is also a 2002 boat. David Peck made a carbon spar himself, using tubes supplied by Carbon Fibre Tubes Ltd. It is a thing of beauty covered in wood veneer. He recently asked the company how much the tubes would cost now, and their quote was £1685. That is a bit eye watering. I am hoping I can find a second hand International 14 mast (as Ian Brett did to source Bella's carbon mast - and Elektra's mast also started life as an Intl.14 mast). I am discussing this with Pete Jackson who made up Ian's mast.

[Justin Greig]

quick follow up to my previous message - I've just spoken to Pete Jackson who did the masts for Bella and for Elektra.

He is thinking of buying a number of tubes suitable for the Cape Cutter to keep costs down and in the expectation that a few customers might emerge. His business is Jackson Composite Repairs - https://www.facebook.com/p/Jackson-Composite-Repairs-100063574298873/

[Dennis]

Sorry to hear your story Paul.

I had the same thing happen with my previous boat (a Winkle Brig), in my case the upper part of the mast came crashing down into the cockpit, fortunately no one was hurt.

As a result of that experience, when I bought my CC19 (new 2008) the first thing I did was remove the hounds, temporarily plugged the bolt holes and the hole at the bottom of the mast and filled the mast (from the top) with Ronseal wood preservative.
After a few weeks when all was dry I refitted the hounds and sealed around the top edge with a marine silicon sealant. That sealant is still intact and hopefully still doing a good job.

The original SA boats had a hollow birdsmouth type mast, a few of those have suffered failures by rotting from the inside.

I believe Collars have supplied new replacement birdsmouth masts for CC19s.

[zimp]

Our Zimp (SN #4, built in South Africa in 2001) had a nice, lightweight, bird-mouth mast. The mast looked good and well-varnished on the outside. In 2011, the mast broke. Fortunately, nobody was injured. It turned out that the mast was rotten on the inside in several locations.
A Frisian mast builder made us a strong, massive (heavy) mast from Douglas fir.
This mast is still in good condition.

P1060135aa.JPG