‘We watched as the mast collapsed into the water’ learning curve
Alejandro Perez describes the moment when ARC yacht Garuda was dismasted 600 miles from land
It was early in the morning and Slava, the skipper, was on watch when the steering system failed. The cable that joins the wheels to the rudder broke. We all came on deck and tried to fix it. Finally – as the sun came up – we solved it with a rope instead of a cable.
The wind was getting stronger and there were more waves. We sailed for a while with both sails up – the genoa and mainsail with one reef, but the wind increased and the steering wasn’t working well. A gust came and we turned to port causing the genoa to back. Five seconds later we saw the port shroud snap at the bottom and immediately afterwards there was a ‘boom’ and the mast cracked in two parts: it was completely open. The four of us watched as the mast and sails fell to the starboard side and into the water, still attached to the boat. We lost control as there was so much rigging in the water. By now it was 1000 UTC and we were 600 miles from St Lucia, at 45¡ West.
We spent six hours cutting everything free. We didn’t have proper tools – just a small saw and two hammers. The waves and the rigging were hitting the boat at the same time – it was a difficult moment! We got to work quickly.
I felt stable in the boat but I was worried by how hard the rig was hitting the hull at the front. If it continued like this, there would be damage. The waves were side-on – maybe 2m high. We didn’t think about the catastrophe; we just kept working… there was so much adrenaline. We had to get rid of everything. I still don’t know how we did it – we broke every blade in the saw. That was the most difficult part of all.
At one point I saw a yacht about two miles away. I tried to call by radio but we had no antenna. We’d lost everything. We only had a short-distance radio, but it should have worked. I was calling ‘Pan Pan’ but they didn’t answer.
Some of us wanted to call the ARC straight away but we waited until morning. I explained we were all good, but we had lost a mast and only had fuel for 24 hours. They contacted many boats, and gave us the details of those nearby who were happy to give us fuel. We couldn’t contact them, but one of them, Biguá, a Brazilian boat, was trying to call. They were amazing because they kept on trying with the radio and finally I got the signal. It was very poor. I answered and after many tries managed to give our position. They came towards us and called other boats for help. A German boat called Venus came too. We could see them, but without our mast
We didn’t think about the catastrophe; we just kept working... there was so much adrenaline
they couldn’t see us. We fired the rocket, and they both saw the red smoke and came to us.
The next challenge was how to transfer the fuel cans. It was very rocky. Venus’s crew attached eight cans to a rope and threw it in the sea. They moved away and we fished them in easily. Biguá had to approach a lot, but after several tries they managed to give us five cans.
We called ARC control to tell them that we’d already refuelled and had enough. There were still other boats coming to our aid, but we said it’s ok – we didn’t need any more help and would see them in Rodney Bay.
Without a mast, the motion was different but with the engine on it was ok. Whilst we’d been waiting for help we made a jury rig so that if we didn’t get fuel we could sail. For this we used the spinnaker pole and six ropes we’d cut free from the rigging as stays. We used another rope as a halyard. It was a good team effort and helped keep us busy.
I would have liked to try it out but in the end, when we got the fuel we decided not to because the sails are so big – we would have needed to cut them.
We did have to fix the steering system again. That rope worked for another 600 miles and the autopilot as well! Initially we lost our navigation system because the cables were inside the mast, but Kostia, one of the crew, managed to fix it. Finally, we had a nav system, GPS, short-range VHF and paper charts for St Lucia and St Vincent. A couple of us had tablets and apps on our phone with Navionics charts.
When we finally made it, we had a beer and talked with people. We were so happy. The whole day I still couldn’t believe I was on land!
We made a jury rig so that if we didn’t get fuel we could sail