First day out - gear failure

Teria close reached into the calm waters in the lee of the breakwater, going well. Suddenly something in the rig snapped with a loud twang and the boat shook a bit, potential trouble! A quick scan up and down the rig revealed all was in place as it should be, then i remembered a  post on the Investigator 563 forum where an owner discovered a half broken chain-plate fitting during a total refit.. A look there revealed the windward chain plate u-bolt's deck-plate had lifted about 3 mm off the deck, a very hard to spot small detail but it was potentially serious, i strongly suspected that the u-boat had half broken - the whole rig was supported by this on this tack.

Instantly we let fly the sheets and rounded up into the wind to relieve the winds pressure on the rig and fittings. The outboard roared to life and Glenn steered us into the wind while i dropped the sails. We motored close to the breakwater and dropped the CQR plough for the first time.  Next we dropped the mast and lashed it onto the railings.

Securing the mast on deck in calm waters of the breakwater anchorage.

Whew rig saved, so retreated to the cabin for lunch and a break, plus time for a couple of pics.

Lunch aboard Teria.

The cabin is kept cool by a forward opening hatch.

We had 2 mobiles aboard for communications, so called my wife who was watching all this from the Casino breakwall to let her know the sail hadn't gone exactly as planned but we were ok and heading back soon.

Leaving the shelter of the break wall, Magnetic Island in distance.

Once the anchor was up we motored out and were soon ploughing into the 15 knot Easterly and 3-4ft waves. Our course back to the harbor entrance took us across  the windward side of the breakwall, about 150 m out, the seas got a bit confused with rebound waves off the wall. The 10 hp outboard hangs off the transom on a bracket, bit a precarious perch in confused seas, but it had already a second attachment to the boat in place - a strong chain incase it's mounting clamps slipped off. Going over some waves the propeller came out of the water and it began cavitating - once the prop is underwater again air forms on the low pressure side of the blade,  the prop wont bite into the water at all and just spins up into very high revs, this is in effect similar to loosing traction in a car. The answer was to quickly throttle off and keep it set to about 1/4 speed. We went a bit slower at around 3 knots but the cavitation didn't happen again and the boats motion was far more comfortable too. The good thing about having a keel is there is hardly any sideways drift at slow hull speeds.

 A  fuel tanker ship arrived when we did and was self-maneuvering in the entrance to the port but we squeezed around  and opened up to 5 knots. Once in the calm harbor things went like clockwork. The retrieval went allot better than the launching did. I nosed the bow into the floating pontoon so Glenn could go ashore and get the trailer in. I took the boat out and slowly nudged the bow into the trailer's guides. Once lodged in place the winch cable went on and Teria was winched up out of the sea.

Securing gear for towing, the outboard comes off the transom bracket and is kept in the tow vehicle.

It didn't take long to get it tied down and we rolled off for home. Some work had to be done on the boat and trailer but I was satisfied that we had come back safely under our own steam. The boat didn't leak, handled nicely under power - in seas and around the ramp,  anchored securely and sailed well even only for a short time. The rig drama drove home that you have to keep checking the gear aboard and keep it maintained. I had done this but not enough it seems, But sometimes in the end the only way to find out is to have a go and get out there.