SW-INC-0004SeaWise Incidents

Dismasting under reduced sail, Bay of Biscay

Forestay failure in 38 kt; the crew jury-rigged and made Brest over three days.

likely · 1 sourceF
Vessel
MarigoldSailing yacht
When
2018North Atlantic
Crew
3 aboardAll survived
Outcome
Returned safely
Position
Bay of Biscay
Sea area
Bay of Biscay
Coordinates
45.50°N, -4.50°WApproximate position
Summary

What happened.

Forestay failure under reduced sail in 38 kt of wind; the crew of three cut the wreckage clear and made Brest under jury rig over three days.

Lessons learned

What it teaches.

  • 1
    Carry bolt-croppers and a hacksaw sized to your rigging, stowed where you can reach them with the deck moving. Clearing a rig over the side is a race against holing the hull.
    rig failure
Sources

Where this comes from.

Forum· YBW ForumDismasting in Biscay — what we learnedVisit ↗

SeaWise indexes and links to primary sources; it does not host their reports or media. Crew are referred to by role unless documented consent is on file.

From SeaWise

Procedures involved.

ProcedurePrimary

Rig Failure

Procedure

Extreme Weather

Explore

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Record IDSW-INC-0004
Curated bySeaWise editorial
Confidencelikely · 1 source
Record typeIncident

About SeaWise records: We catalogue sailing emergencies with structured metadata and link to primary sources rather than republishing them. Individual crew names are anonymised by default— sources we link to may name them publicly; SeaWise refers to roles ("the skipper", "the crew") on our pages. Submitter identities are always private.