Actually, I had a little help - both times it happened.


A year later, the same bolt decided to pull out again. This time, I was by myself on a small lake, with most of the shoreline rocky. I spotted a patch of beach almost dead downwind from me, so I cleaned up the mess, stood up on the trampoline to provide some windage, and steered toward the beach. Unfortunately, the bolt had completely stripped out the aluminum plate embedded in the bow, so there was no way to restep the mast. Fortunately, the property owner was kind enough to tow me back to the launch area. I ended up epoxying the bolt in and thought I was set. No such luck.

In 2007 (at the North Americans in New York), I was leading the 1st race in 15+ kts when the same bolt pulled out again. It took a long time for me to get towed to shore (a lot of people were in trouble) and I missed the second race because of it. That probably cost me the championship.

I have since reinforced the the bows of my 14 under the deck lip so that the bridle attaches through the lip, like it does on the 16. This is the way new 14s are built.

Bottom line - dismasting is not the end of the world - especially on a 14.

Somewhat different, but does anyone have any pictures of a Bow tang reinforcement on an H14? I've tried tapping it, and no luck (didn't hold), ergo I think I'll have to cut the hull and create a new plate, but obviously don't really want to do any of that. Anyone know of a tutorial on replacing stripped bow tang plates? The 2 inside screws are still holding, but the 2 outside screws are toast, and don't really want to dismast as I generally sail alone.

Thanks