You often see the term Dramatic Rescue, watch the video and wonder why the crew bailed out.
Wonder no more.
gary
www.maritime-executive.com/article/video-uscg-high-seas-rescue-of-four-sailors-from-disabled-sailboat

Wow glad I wasn't the rescue guy being winched down and having to face all those broken sharp stainless steel solar supports jutting out from the cockpit over the swim platform which were rising and falling and swaying left and right whilst he was suspended and basically had no control over his location

Although there is a shot of some of them standing in the cabin, the 2 waiting on deck looked quite injured. Probably as a result of the yacht rolling over or the wave smashing it.
Not clearing all the dangerous debris for the rescuer, the crew must have been injured or in danger on deck.

That was interesting, thanks Gary.
If there was an able body on board I'd be doing everything I could to cut away that rig, that motion looks horrible.
Sober reminder to check all the clevis pins on your standing rigging are free and functional.
Pure guesswork, but It kinds looks like the rig fell backwards. That's a private nightmare, a few 100kgs of jagged alloy, cloth and wires landing on top of your crew, all rolling around in 16' seas.
Ugh.

I have a hacksaw and tools on the boat, but I think an 18v Makita 4 inch grinder would be a good thing to have on board during something like this. You do have to know how to use a grinder because they are dangerous (keep using the left hand side of the disc to get it to run away from you is one tip). But I can understand finding it very hard to remove the rig in those conditions. I wonder about age as well. As we get older as a group we usually want our boats get bigger and more complex, and we get less strong, that there is a bit of worry with our ability to handle our boats physically when things go wrong. If everything is going well big is great, but when bad stuff happens and we have to get out and manhandle the boat, it becomes much tricker than in our youth on smaller, simpler boats we owned when we were butch.

PS - a battery grinder is a great tool to have on board for glass repairs too. Much safer to use a battery one compared to one powered by a generator.

cheers

Phil

I agree with the 18v grinder set up with a thin disc. The only problem is in treacherous conditions you might be forced to use the machine one handed and that's when they become really dangerous. For an old bloke the extra long handled bolt cutter might be better. I have one that came with my boat and I should get off my butt and clean it up and coat it in lanolin and store it with the emergency steering tiller.

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garymalmgren said..
You often see the term Dramatic Rescue, watch the video and wonder why the crew bailed out.
Wonder no more.
gary
www.maritime-executive.com/article/video-uscg-high-seas-rescue-of-four-sailors-from-disabled-sailboat

Thanks Gary

A good splash of salt water sucked into the cooling air intake might stop your grinder very quickly.

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wongaga said..
A good splash of salt water sucked into the cooling air intake might stop your grinder very quickly.

Those guys were lucky and must have been over the moon to see the chopper. Good point wongaga and something to bear in mind, but not all broken mast situations are in heavy seas. I carry both a big pair of bolt cutters and a grinder.

As has already been said, in unstable conditions a grinder can be very dangerous in itself, and you have the situation of having to keep the thing fully charged and available at all times if it is to be of any use.

Disclosure : I have never been dismasted. But it seems to me that while a grinder might be very useful, you wouldn't want rely on it 100%. If you add up the risk of serious wounding, the possibility of it not being charged and the vulnerability to water damage, a manual cutter must be the primary option.

Cheers, Graeme

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julesmoto said..
Wow glad I wasn't the rescue guy being winched down and having to face all those broken sharp stainless steel solar supports jutting out from the cockpit over the swim platform which were rising and falling and swaying left and right whilst he was suspended and basically had no control over his location

I suspect the yachties were injured and couldn't get off the yacht without assistance.
In my Navy time on helicopters we would have the guys to be rescued get into the water and do a two-man lift from the water (the rescuer goes down on the winch and assists the rescuee into the harness and both are winched up). If they had a raft we would get them into the raft with a line securing the raft to the yacht and recover them from the raft.
Winching from the yacht with all those broken bits to snag you is very dangerous. If the winch line gets caught on the yacht the crewmen in the helo would have to cut the cable to avoid the helo being pulled around by the yacht.
Doing a winch from a yacht with the mast still upright is really tricky for the same reasons.
They did the rescue from the bow which is what I would have done if the guys couldn't get into the water or a raft.

Putting the mast in and we'd just dropped all the clevis pins in when Antione whipped out some tape and proceeded to tape over them. I was a bit concerned as I like to be able to see everything. He grinned and pulled out a split pin and held it up, then pointed at the mast.
"Which one would you like to replace?"

For cutting away a fallen rig one of these would have to be the safest option. Will not rust like normal bolt cutters and is a WIRE cutter. Will cut up to 12 mm wire. Over that I think a hacksaw is the next best option.

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cisco said..
For cutting away a fallen rig one of these would have to be the safest option. Will not rust like normal bolt cutters and is a WIRE cutter. Will cut up to 12 mm wire. Over that I think a hacksaw is the next best option.

Agree, that is why I have one + a pair of bolt cutters and a hacksaw all readily accessible.

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cisco said..
For cutting away a fallen rig one of these would have to be the safest option. Will not rust like normal bolt cutters and is a WIRE cutter. Will cut up to 12 mm wire. Over that I think a hacksaw is the next best option.

These look good, do you have a link to them/price?

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2bish said..

cisco said..
For cutting away a fallen rig one of these would have to be the safest option. Will not rust like normal bolt cutters and is a WIRE cutter. Will cut up to 12 mm wire. Over that I think a hacksaw is the next best option.

These look good, do you have a link to them/price?

Looks like www.amazon.com.au/Felco-C12-FELCO-Cable-Cutters/dp/B0054I9RE8?th=1. Think I'll swap out my rusty bolt cutters and invest $300 in a pair of these.

K.

I always liked these German ratchet cutters. I watched a guy go through 10mm like it was effortless.
www.baudat.de/en/products/wire-rope-cutters/ratchet-wire-rope-cutters

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cisco said..
For cutting away a fallen rig one of these would have to be the safest option. Will not rust like normal bolt cutters and is a WIRE cutter. Will cut up to 12 mm wire. Over that I think a hacksaw is the next best option.

You might recall I had one on Morning Bird. When I had the rug replaced I tried cutting a stay with it. I'm a small bloke but no one in the marina could cut through 3/8" stainless rigging with it.
doing it on a boat tossing around, mmmmm?
I also had a couple of hacksaws with numerous blades. I think they might do the job but it would take time.

Anyone thinking that they will clear damaged rigging on a moving boat with a hacksaw is kidding themselves.
30 years ago in Singapore I re-rigged Jupiter with sta-lok fittings.
Cheap and easy I thought.
Buy a roll of 5/16 stainless riggingwire , a bundle of fittings .
Cut the rigging wire to length, fit the end fittings and Bob's your uncle.
We had no niffty battery driven angle grinder and no power, so off I went with a hack saw and a couple of new blades.
With the rigging wire in a vice (no rocking or lurching) the hacksaw blades were dull within 5 minutes.
All blades broken within a couple of hours.
The upshot is that it took hours of sawing under ideal conditions.
No way it would work under emergency conditions.

gary

The battery grinder would be my go to option. I guess dyneema has the advantage of not only light weight but being able to be cut with a knife

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garymalmgren said..
Anyone thinking that they will clear damaged rigging on a moving boat with a hacksaw is kidding themselves.
30 years ago in Singapore I re-rigged Jupiter with sta-lok fittings.
Cheap and easy I thought.
Buy a roll of 5/16 stainless riggingwire , a bundle of fittings .
Cut the rigging wire to length, fit the end fittings and Bob's your uncle.
We had no niffty battery driven angle grinder and no power, so off I went with a hack saw and a couple of new blades.
With the rigging wire in a vice (no rocking or lurching) the hacksaw blades were dull within 5 minutes.
All blades broken within a couple of hours.
The upshot is that it took hours of sawing under ideal conditions.
No way it would work under emergency conditions.

gary

I think you would have to be careful selecting the right blades. The quality ones would be as brittle as hell and might take a couple of breakages for each wire.

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woko said..
The battery grinder would be my go to option. I guess dyneema has the advantage of not only light weight but being able to be cut with a knife

Getting the right knife to cut Dyneema is not that easy either.

Everybody is guessing. Anybody got actual accounts of how rigging has been cut away after losing a mast?

I recall one account where they removed the pins to release the rigging and mast.

I've cut wire very successfully with a cold chisel and hammer onto a piece of metal .
Can't see a hacksaw working very well & I think if the conditions are bad enough to lose the mast there would be to much water for a grinder.
Maybe an axe might work have to be a good one with a really hard edge like a cold chisel & that has the advantage of being able to use one handed .
Its just a thought.

Yachting monthly have a crash tested dismasting and various tools used, worth a read. They sooked out and didn't use the grinder

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MorningBird said..
Everybody is guessing. Anybody got actual accounts of how rigging has been cut away after losing a mast?

I recall one account where they removed the pins to release the rigging and mast.

Yep, that's why they are there. In the perfect world a chainplate design doesn't foul the access to, or the removal of, the pins when the rig is hanging over the side (like having no slop between the toggle and the chainplate so it can't jam the pin). When we did the boat commissioning I had to learn how to drop all the clevis pins out. The idea was you should be able to drop the split pin and knock the clevis pin out with just a hammer, no drift punch or anything. I carried one anyway with the hammer.
And two hacksaws with the best blades I could get.
And a grinder with a box of 10 discs. And two batteries.
Lydia always used to give me ^%%$#@ about the extra weight

Grinder used in this story

www.yachtingmonthly.com/sailing-skills/the-sickening-sound-of-tearing-wood-as-we-were-hit-by-the-wave-71571/2