Mast mishap

It was the 3 Rivers Race, 1967. We’d made the Stacey Arms mark before the tide changed, had shot Acle Bridge both ways and Potter Heigham Bridges on our way up, lowering the mast without dropping the sails. We were now on our way back from the Hickling Pleasure Boat buoy. My brainwave of rigging a trapeze to Strider, our 18ft Broads half decker may not have produced more speed but had certainly added to the gayety of the race. We’d enjoyed a soldier’s wind across Hickling Broad and there was even a chop as night fell.

Now we were approaching the two Potter Heigham Bridges again with the strengthening wind up our chuff. We slipped into our practised ‘shooting the bridge’ places: Paul, my older brother, on the tiller in charge of the crutches, Clive and Mickey on the paddles and helping as the mast descended, with me disconnecting the gooseneck and controlling the jib halyard.

The bridge was approaching ever faster, and with the halyard untied the 20ft mast should have been dropping smoothly. Only it wasn’t; it had stuck. The pivot pin in the tabernacle had cut a keyhole shape owing to the added weight of the trapeze, which meant the mast was resting on its foot. Realisation dawned on me.

Paul at this time was facing astern to guide the mast into the crutches he was holding. I shouted a warning. The confused faces of Clive and Mickey could be seen in a glimmer of moonlight as the mast met the span, clearing the jam immediately so the mast fell without the calming effect of the halyard, which I’d let go of.

Dropped in sympathy with the mast was the tan cotton sail that covered those young upturned faces. In the quiet that follows all such incidents the transistor radio played Procal Harum ‘We skipped a light fandango, turned cartwheels cross the floor, I was feeling kinda seasick’. The mast was in one piece, but a lump of rotten foredeck had been lifted by the mast foot. The crutches had not fallen in the river though, which was some consolation. We recovered and paddled under the low arch of the old road bridge as if all was as we expected.

Although it took more effort than normal, the mast was raised and we sailed on to finish the race in the dawn’s early light.