S/V Kudana


A sad sight. Kudana just after losing the rig.

Winlink 2000 Email from Bob Heasman, ZS6FB.
No mast....Hustler whip antenna on the pushpit....

Hi Bernard,

Phew what a relief to see your mail. I only have one e-mail address. Here is what happened to me. Not just a broken mast.

Having been in NZ for 5 months and spent a lot of our savings on upgrading our boat, by painting her hulls with anti foul and having the sails repaired. The Genoa was reinforced and new ultra-violet sacrificial cloth sewn around the edge. We had a brand new main sail and lazy bag fitted and new material fitted to our Bimini. We also had fold up blinds fitted around the edge. She looked great, everything in Teal. What is more she was sailing beautifully.

On the 22nd. of May at 1000 on a beautiful clear morning. The Sun was shining bright and the wind was blowing at a steady 18 knots. We had one reef in each sail which put us clearly in the safety zone, and we were sailing at 6 to 7 knots. Suddenly there was an awful noise and the mast and boom came crashing down onto the Bimini and the Port side of the boat. The boat came to a standstill and I was left looking at a scene of utter devastation. I was completely numb and dumbfounded. I made a few attempts at salvaging some of it but it was a complete waste of time and effort, and after some discussion with my crew I decided the only course was to cut it all away. We were 40 miles from land and the sea was running at about 2 meters in height and I could just not see any way to save things. So out came the hacksaw and I began to cut stay wires. Eventually it all went over the side not causing much damage to Kudana and nobody was hurt. What a dreadful feeling cutting the last wire and watching the whole lot sink to the bottom of the sea.

It was obvious that the Forestay had broken and this had caused the disaster. Why this happened I can't imagine because we were not over stressing the rig. We then motored in towards the mainland and arrived at Ha'afeva at about 2200, where we thankfully dropped anchor and went off to bed. The next day being a Sunday there wasn't anything happening ashore so we just tidied up as best we could and relaxed. The following day we headed for Lifuka where we logged in with Customs, Quarantine, Health and immigration. What a circus. I needed fuel so had to do this in order to be allowed ashore to purchase some. The price of diesel is now awful. Having refueled we are now motoring to Vava'U, a distance of some 80 miles, where we hope to arrive on the morning of the 27th. of May.

Personally this has knocked the "wind out of my sails" (literally), and I cannot see a clear future in sailing, which, frankly, is devastating, but I am an optimist so after all this dust has settled I must get down to rebuilding my life, but at the age of 75 I really need a lot of help.

That's it.
73.
Bob
ZS6FB

Friends, if you can help in any way, to enable them to continue their good work in the Pacific Islands (see below) either by providing a used mast, or provide any information which might help, please email me:
Bernard Dekok
zs4bdk AT hotmail dott com (change this).

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