Ever had a mast fall down? My friend having sailed out my Dehler Varianta 18 in Stockholms archipelago in my absence recently. Something, that must never happen, happened. I couldn’t almost believe what he was telling me the other day, luckily he is a very experienced sailor who had dealt with worse things than this one, but if it happened to me I guess I would have issued a PAN PAN to all stations (if I had a radio though…).

The boat, built in 2011 while the Dehler wharf was still building the VA18, is equipped with a Seldén Furlex 50 furling system, that according to the previous owner of my boat was already attached with the forestay. To be honest, it never came to my mind to read the manual (that I did not have) of the Furlex, as all I needed to know was how to attach the Furlex to the boat and set up the mast. Well, according to the manual, the screw to the terminal is supposed to be permantly locked by having applied some drops of locking adhesive before screwing it to the terminal and tighten it securly. Either this step has been missed in the wharf, or the locking adhesive my get old with a few years.

So, sailors – watch out and check the screws that you may not even have known they exist.