Had to jump on this one Katy!

"Bart Senior" wrote in message
t...
You are sailing upwind, offshore, when your backstay
parts at the masthead. The nearest land is 600 miles
to weather, and you have limited fuel, water, and food.

What should you immediately do? [1 pt Turn into the wind to reduce
pressure; sheet in the main to near the centerline and use the sail itself
along with the mainsheet to provide aft direction support. Secure both
broken ends to prevent fouling.

What steps can you take to prevent the loss of
the whole rig? [1 pt]

Going up wind the mainsail and mainsheet will act to secure the mast in
that direction. If you have running backstays consider using them. If you
have a proper four lower shroud setup to begin with that will, along with
usingthe main and mainsheet reduce the problem to manageable proportions.
Finally you can replacethe mains'lwith the topping lift if itisn't wimpy or
one of the forward halyards (the main halyard will be busy bringingdown the
main sail at this point, and use it in place of the topping lift. The
advantagehere is the mechanical purchase of the mainsheet to boom to sail,
topping lift, or otherhalyard gives you a good tight temporary fix. Which
to use depends on what rigging set up is present

What can you use to replace the backstay long enough
to get home? [1 pt]

Then one or all of the following. If you can secure the broken mast head
end of the backstay secure it aft with a bit of line and tighten using a
winch or even a truckers hitch. Make sure the broken deck end is not
fouling rudder or prop. Run the spinnaker or other spare foremast halyard
aft andsecure it. If all else is under control bridge the break. I keep a
short bit of stay/halyard wire and some wire clips in my emergency locker
for just this purpose.


What else can be done to pull the mast aft to keep
tension on the rig? [1 pt]

If you are using the sail/topping lift/halyard as a topping lift to
mainsheet configuration which means not using the mainsail you can run the
end of the mainsheet through a block to one of the winches. If you repaired
the aftstay with a clipped bridging wire you can't rig a hauling line to the
are of the wireclips andrun the same to a winch.


Limited fuel, water, food means something else went wrong earlier and also
means I can't float around waiting for Boats US. But in this circumstance
while I wouldn't pop an EPIRB I would send out a Pan message and ask to have
it passed to the coasties or similar.

M.