Broken Spars

[piperman60]

Hello there, im new to this forum,my name is Ray and I have been sailing for a few years off and on first on a windrush 12 but now i own a maricat 4.3, I was out today on the bay here in Brisbane, I live in the bayside suburb of Sandgate just a couple of hundred mtrs from the waterfront and had an unfortunate thing happen, that is to say the cable brace underneath the front spar snapped and my maricat folded up like a laptop. the front spar snapped just underneath the mast and the back spar snapped on the left rear next to the left hull, down came the mast ,sail etc, it was just lucky i was close to shore and was able to pull the cat in to the beach. Im going to have to buy two new spars as both have been snapped clean through, im surprised this happened as it was only 15 knots and a bit choppy along the brighton waterfront. i payed $250 for the cat, trailer included so i figure it was not not a bad deal? I dont know how easy or even if i can still buy spars for this cat, Any help would be great!!!!!! I just want to get back out on the water and i have no idea what this may cost and if it is even worth the effort? Cheers piperman60 aka Ray.

[Pointed Reply]

You have snapped the dolphin striker wire. As you can see it is a VERY important structural component of the boat. It MUST be checked regularly and replaced as required. Without the dolphin striker just the weight of the mast is enough to stress

the beams.

It is possible to buy new cross beams, (for you Brisbane Cat Centre) or second hand ones from Darcy. BUT ... if you can

find another $250 boat then buy that and combine the best bits.

[piperman60]

broken spars

Hello again and thanks very much for your reply, Have found another maricat for $400.00 in Sydney and will pick it up next week, complete cat no trailer but for the money im happy, As you suggested i will replace the striker wire as a matter of fact and go ove it with a fine tooth comb, Once again thanks for your help. Piperman60.

[knobblyoldjimbo]

while you're at changing things over, it seems to be generally recommended that you remove metal things that attach to other metal things (like the mast step), cover them in duralac and re rivet them. Mate took off his hounds fittings to do this and found that the area underneath was so corroded that the mast was useless. I think you should probably do it to to the cross beam bolts as well. As noted elsewhere monel is a good material for rivets, particularly for places like the hounds (sod to do up without a 'proper' rivetter).