Marine Mishap
Why oh why do these things always happen when miles from the shore on a cold winter day with no-one around?
Ok, so maybe I shouldn’t go windsurfing on my own in such conditions, but the wind was a perfect 25-30 knots (Force 6-7) the sea looked like fun with some decent waves to play on so I couldn’t resist it. To start with things were fine, but then as I was blasting along with a big grin on my face I heard a big ‘C-R-A-C-K’ as the mast snapped I looked over my shoulder and though ‘oh dear (or maybe something a little stronger) I’, miles from the beach!’
My mast had snapped in two where my booms connects to it so there was no option but to swim back to shore. In the end I had to take the mast out of the sail and ditch it at sea as the shardes of carbon fibre kept trying to impale me, which left me with the sail actiing a n anchor. Sails also sink so getting them back to shore is quite difficult. It took me about an hour of swimming and struggling with several kilos of carbon fibre and monofilm, but I eventually made it back to fight another day.
Not only a waste of a decent session but expensive too as the mast coasts around £250 and I lost my boom in the end as well. Grrrrr….
