help mast keeps breaking at bottom in 2 storm without sail u

Regarding the DS3 only. Note that the DS3 is not a class-legal Day Sailer.

Moderator: GreenLake

help mast keeps breaking at bottom in 2 storm without sail u

Postby meoj1234 » Wed Mar 11, 2020 11:21 am

Hi A year or so ago I bought a day sailer 3 for my 16 year old daughter. She took sailing classes and is pretty good. The problem is the mast broke at the base during a storm while the sail was down and it was on the mooring. So I had the sailboat shop re-rig the mast and fix it. Put it back up and back in the water and 3 weeks later it broke again. Are we rigging things wrong. All of the 3 stays were tight. The sailboat shop charged me $600.00 to fix it. So frustrated.....please help
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Re: help mast keeps breaking at bottom in 2 storm without sa

Postby meoj1234 » Wed Mar 11, 2020 11:29 am

here is what it looks like at the bottom
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Re: help mast keeps breaking at bottom in 2 storm without sa

Postby GreenLake » Wed Mar 11, 2020 1:18 pm

How is the bottom of your mast anchored?

The most common damage for the bottom of a mast that I've read about here is when the mast is stepped on deck or a tabernacle and falls (because one of the stays breaks or lets go). At that point anything attached to the mast bottom will be ripped out. Is that what happened?
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: help mast keeps breaking at bottom in 2 storm without sa

Postby jalmeida51 » Wed Mar 11, 2020 11:44 pm

I have a Daysailer1 built by Rebel. It was built in 1981. The mast is deck stepped. I believe Daysailer 3 are also deck stepped. On your picture it shows damage to the base of your mast and damage to your mast step casting. The mast step casting on my boat is through bolted to a tabernacle hinge. The bottom of the hinge is through bolted to the cuddy cabin roof. Check to see if the bolts are loose or pulling through the roof. My boat the bolts were pulling through the roof loosing up the shrouds. The only backup for the bolts were small washers. I had a stainless steel plate made to prevent the bolts from pulling through the roof I also up graded to 1/8 shrouds with turnbuckles.

My owners manual states do not moor the boat on a mooring in a exposed mooring field or an area of choppy water.

You can call Rudy at D&R Marine 508-644-3001 he really knows these boats. He stocks all the parts you will need. Ask him about mooring your boat.
John
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Re: help mast keeps breaking at bottom in 2 storm without sa

Postby meoj1234 » Sun Mar 15, 2020 12:08 pm

Thanks Everyone-
The bottom of the mast is anchored on a tabernacle hinge. I will take some more pics and post today.
Indeed the the stay broke too but I did not realize that the stays or the shroud might have broke first.

I will check the bolts that hold mast step

In terms of the mooring - should I be leaving the keel up or down while mooring? Also if there is a nasty north wind is when this happens so the comment on the mooring in choppy water makes me think I have the wrong boat to put on a mooring??

Sorry for the naive questions, but we are just learning.

Will also call Rudy for his advice. This forum is great and a good distraction from the rest of the world now, so thanks for your help
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Re: help mast keeps breaking at bottom in 2 storm without sa

Postby GreenLake » Sun Mar 15, 2020 2:36 pm

meoj1234 wrote:Sorry for the naive questions, but we are just learning.
...This forum is great and a good distraction from the rest of the world now, so thanks for your help


Naive questions are certainly welcome here on the forum, and, yes, it's a bit of a safe space, these days :)

Now, it sounds from your description, that conditions are too rough at times to keep the boat on a mooring. I know someone locally who anchors his boat for the weekend, but takes it out of the water if he's not using it for a while. Even so, I had to rescue it for him once in the middle of the night, when the anchor started to drag. . .

With limited periods in the water (preferably when you are nearby) you can monitor the weather conditions and keep the boat off the water when your mooring/anchorage isn't protected because the wind is too strong or comes out of the wrong direction.

Now, the only thing that holds your mast in place are the stays. Once they give, the bolts cannot hold your mast, because the lever arm is so long, it will rip out any bolt - and that's what happened to you. For the stays to work, they need to be fairly tight, so that the mast can't move from the boat rolling. Otherwise, the mast will start moving and "slam" into the stays, which increases their likelihood of snapping. (They also shouldn't be older than about 10 years, if you stress them that hard, or 15 if not).

When you have the boat at anchor, on a mooring, the CB should be up, the rudder out of the water and the boom disconnected and kept in the cockpit, so that it can't swing about (even a bit) with every wave and put stress on the rigging. (For overnight, when you are on the boat or camping off the boat, it's enough to secure the boom with topping lift and and bridle to keep it centered; in those cases you'd normally leave the sail tied to the boom as well).

The little clevis pins can work loose, if they are not secured with cotter pins or rings (and those need to be secured as well). They are usually fine for a short time, but if you leave them up for a few days, they can work themselves loose. Happened to somebody I know who sailed the Texas 200 (five days of 40 mile trips back to back). One day, a ring worked itself loose, and while trying to secure it, he capsized.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: help mast keeps breaking at bottom in 2 storm without sa

Postby meoj1234 » Tue Apr 07, 2020 10:40 am

wow- thank you so much. i will look into these things
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Re: help mast keeps breaking at bottom in 2 storm without sa

Postby mwiggins151 » Fri Mar 19, 2021 4:52 pm

My friend had the same problem. After having the mast come down twice, we rigged the main halyard to act as a backstay when the boat is at the mooring. Since we did this we haven't had any problems. You can also rig this to support the boom eliminating the need for a boom crutch.
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