Colligo Titanium Tangs Fractured in Two Separate Dismasting Incidents

[Jim Fulton]

I've been following this thread with interest, and have followed all of the links, but something remains unclear. From the account on the Odda Sea website (nice site, BTW):

"One of the first things I did was to pull on each of the shrouds to see if any had failed and to see if I could reposition the rig underwater to better see what had happened. Pulling on the lower starboard shrouds (the ones under tension on the upwind tack I had previously been on) revealed two cleanly fractured titanium tangs, the metal pieces which bolted the shrouds to the mast. ... I was able to reposition the rig underwater enough to see that the mast had folded in half at the spreaders, that the cap shrouds were definitely still attached all the way up, and that further recovery of the rig would be impossible by a single person. So after taking what photographs I could, I let the whole lot go."

When and how were you able to remove the parts of the broken tangs that were still attached to the mast? In my limited experience, removing rigging tangs is a non-trivial task, even when the mast is firmly supported on sawhorses on the hard. I can't imagine how you were able to retrieve the pieces under the conditions you describe.

Jim Fulton