History

Broken Shrouds at Bass Lake:

One summer we were trying out sailing at Bass Lake and the port side outer shroud decided to snap. I noticed it right away, and luckily it was not a complete snap. A few of the individual metal strands had come undone. We took down the sails, lowered the mast at the dock, and proceeded to drive down to fresno to find some place that could make a new shroud. We found some place that could do it and it was not cheap, but they had the right tool to give the shroud buckle the type of pressure it needed to make a good cable. This fixed the weeks worth of sailing we still had in front of us and when the boat came home we replaced the shroud with one from the factory.

Broken rear window on Expedition

One weekend we decided to go sailing in the bay out of Emeryville. We got all ready, drove up there, and put the boat in the water. Without even thinking about it, we backed the boat into the water, and tried to pull it off the trailer. What we didnt know at the time was that the line that secures the swing centerboard had not been tightened from our previous trip, and the board caught on the trailer when we pulled it out from the launch ramp. The center board snaged on the trailer's axel and pushed it into the car. The rear window on the expedition was open for better communication and the front navigation light ligned up with it perfectly. The boat ran into the open window in the rear, shattered, and fell into the water on the launch ramp. Sailing trip canceled.

Rudder THEN tiller

San Francisco Bay near Alcatraz:

One weekend I went with my father to sail in the bay, and with really strong winds, and a shorter than desired rudder, I bent the factory tiller at the base. The aluminum tube just buckled and it was no more. We had to pull up the rudder and use the outboard to steer us back into port. Our boat guy sold us a very nice laminated wood tiller to replace the factory aluminum tube. It is a lot stronger and looks much nicer, but requires more maintenance as its another piece of wood on the boat. The very next weekend we went sailing out of Emeryville again, and at about the same place in the bay, the through hull rudder just broke off. Another weekend of driving back to port with the outboard engine. We called to get the replacement part, but it was going to take longer than we wanted. My Dad used to be in the machine shop business and had a friend who owed a favor. We gave him the broken part and he made a brand new one from scratch out of stainless steel in just a few days. We now have the factory part as a backup and a nice custom stainless steel through hull rudder plate that has not given us any problems.

Broken Mast in the San Francisco Bay:

Breaking a mast is never fun. Luckily nobody got hurt on this one. We were sailing in the SF Bay out of Emeryville, and again, in the middle of the bay between Alcatraz and treasure island we were under very heavy wind. One of the shrouds snapped and the mast buckled at the spreaders. Both sails went into the water along with the mast and were quite difficult to recover. On the plus side, the Coast Guard was on our tail and onsite of the accident within 3 minutes without a call. They must have people scouting the bay with binoculars looking for this stuff all the time. A lot of people also offered their assistance. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this event.

Trailer Snapped at Lexington:

For the duration of our boat ownership, we've always had troubles with the trailer. Usually it was the lights not working or the 3rd retractable wheel was rusted up and would not raise and lower anymore. I believe we are on our 4th or 5th front wheel, they tend to last 2 seasons for me before I decide it needs to be replaced before it breaks again. This last year, actually it was the first sail of the season at Lexington, I went with my friend Genoa, and we had a great, foul weather sail. It was a bit rainy but the wind was wonderful. We got very cold at times but the sail was quite worth it. When we were all soaked and done sailing, I backed the trailer up to pull the boat out, attached the winch hook to the front and started cranking. The ladder/steps which holds up the winch broke the main steel shaft with the trailer ball socket on it completely off. I was able to put the boat back in the water, tie it to the dock, and the trailer barely made it up the hill before the front end completely broke off. It would have killed somebody if this had happened of the freeway and this really freaked me out. After taking the trailer back up to the parking lot, I called the rangers and they came to help me secure the boat on the lake. It took a week and a half to get the trailer rebuilt so we could pull the boat off the lake. The thing is, this lake does not allow overnight berthing. I had to throw out the anchor, and tie the bow to a tree. The water level of this lake at the time was about 25' vertical feet form full, and the launch ramp was barely in the water, hence it being the first sail of the season. For a week and a half, I had to go to the boat every day, to pull in the bow line and re-tie it so i could access the boat from the shore. In the week and a half, I'd say the lake level rose at least 20' and by the time I could pull the boat out, the base of the tree I attached my bowline to was under water. I must give out major props to the Santa Clara county rangers for this one as they were a major help. In addition to being very understanding of what happened, they helped me tie up the boat, and they checked on it every day it was on the water. I now know some of them by name and I always get to talk with them when I go up to the lake.

#1	#2	#3	#4
Trailer parked at Lexington for 1 night before rigging it onto the back of the truck to get it fixed.	The whole front end of the trailer broke off, and here it is, completely destroyed by rust.	A bit further back, the rust was also really bad.	This is where the boat lived for 2 weeks. Waterline was at the tree line by the time the trailer was done.

Broken Mast #2: Lexington Telephone wires

_ of 2006 was a great year for my local lake. The water filled up quickly with all of the rain, but unfortunately, the water raised so quickly that the rangers never got a chance to fix the dock problems from the year before. The lake was completely full and spilling more than a foot, but the launch ramp was closed. I checked on it about once a week so I could be the first to go sailing that year and one day, while I was working on boat projects with Matt, we went up to check on the dock. To our luck, the dock had opened up that day and we were able to go sailing. We headed back to my house to get the boat ready to go on the water. We had to put the sails back on it, all the needed lines, and put some air in the trailer tires. When all was said and done we had about 2 hours of daylight left to go sailing. The purpose of this sail was to see if previous projects to fix a leak in the floor were successful, and they were. When we were all done, I pulled the boat out as I usually do, pulled it into the parking lot, and noticed a swinging phone line overhead in front of me. I stopped instantly and got out to find that my mast had already been taken down by the line. The mast kinked at the spreaders and fell forward due to the length of the roller furler on the front as you can see in pictures #1 and #5. Picture #2 shows the hinge plate that got ruined in the process, and #8 shows the cracked deck under the hingeplate. Going underneith, picture #7 shows a small crack in the compression post also caused by this accident. The telephone wires in question are seen in #4, and are not even in use. The little loop at the end shows that this was just excess cable that they strung up so they wouldnt have to cut it. I think this telephone cable must have come loose in one of the storms we had because Ive driven under it many times without any issues, and nothing on my boat or rig has changed to make the mast higher.

#1	#2	#3	#4
Broken Mast as seen with my camera phone just after the accident	Bent hingeplate will need to be replaced	another angle from the stern of the boat	Cable that I hit
#5	#6	#7	#8
View from the Bow	Hinge plate zoomed out a bit	Cracked Compression Post	Micro cracks on the deck originating from the hingeplate bolts

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