regularman
New Member
I only have a couple minutes to write this down, but last week I had a near disaster on my c14. I was sailing on a lake leaving from the dock. I had the mainsail lowered and tied up around the boom. We had a weather shore so the wind was at her back and I decide to unfurl the jib and sail on the jib only until we got out in the middle of the lake and then raise the main. When I unfurled the jib, I heard a loud pop and the mast started falling backward. The small penant cable that runs between the mast and the furler uppper swivel had broken. With the wind behind me, I was able to hold up the mast while my wife steered. I was starting to run out of strength so I had my wife hook a bungi cord around the tiller to the hiking strap to keep it pointed downwind. Then I had her go up on the foredeck and unhook the mainsail halyard and hook it through the large hole in the bow fitting. We then pulled in on the halyard and this served as a temporary forestay so we could get back to the dock. If the wind had been higher or from another direction it would have been bad. When replacing stays, I would suggest repacing the 15" penants as well.