Behan Gifford
In terms of sailboat racing, the first race on Wednesday night was a smashing success. The crew tacked sloppily and maneuvered unpolitely prestart. But the fog of winter lifted as we approached the windward mark.
Then the sailing treatment abruptly ended in a crash.
This was a simple dismasting. The upper T fitting on the windward shroud had failed. The rigger had installed the cap shroud a week earlier. It was now a mess with wires, crumpled aluminium, and torn Kevlar. At the time I was a sailing maker, and my conclusion was: never trust riggers.
After two decades, I was atop our Stevens 48. TotemThe standing rigging was newly installed and fabricated. It was all good until I got to the second spreader and found that there were several cotterpins missing. My mind went back to the time of dismasting. The idea of taking three children to the South Pacific suddenly seemed more risky. We were confident that we had the best…
