Dismasted yacht drama for PBO reader
A yacht that dismasted in the ARC+ rally has safely returned to Gran Canaria. Swedish flagged Hilma was 540 miles west of Cape Verde, heading for the Caribbean, when the port stay of the Wauquiez 47PS came loose.
“I realised we had about a minute before the mast came down,” said skipper Henrik Linder. “We only had time to furl in the genoa before I heard a slow murmuring sound followed by a crash on deck.”
The mast fell onto the glassfibre cockpit arch, fortunately avoiding any injury to the four crew in the cockpit, including Henrik’s wife Lotta. The fifth crew member, who had run to the starboard side during the drama on 21 November, was pinched by the guardwire when it impacted the boom, but otherwise uninjured.
Henrik, a PBO subscriber, used a battery powered angle-grinder to cut free the mast, which was buckled at 90º. The boat had lost all electronics, but the Starlink satellite receiver, rigged at the stern, provided a signal for Henrik to message other ARC+ yachts on his mobile phone via the rally WhatsApp group. Within an hour, four boats had arrived to transfer fuel.
They motored 540 miles over four days in rough conditions that rendered most of the crew seasick to reach Mindelo, where, unable to get the mast fixed, Henrik was forced to retire from the rally. The cause of the dismasting is unknown. Henrik added: “If I had the courage or the energy I might have tried to rig the extra spinnaker pole given to us by one of the other yachts. We could have used it for a VHF antenna, but the seas were too crazy. Apart from that it was textbook, I’m proud to say.”
■ The May edition of PBO will look at emergency fixes at sea.