Have you ever snapped, or bent beyond repair?

Laser top mast in light airs and laser boom in strong winds after s gybe! 4000 on its first outing (for me) too, as soon as some kicker was put on.

Like many here I have had a couple of Laser mast breaks, one my doing, one down to a clash between me (upwind) and a boat approaching downwind that broached.  I've snapped N12 and MR mast sections before too.  The worst culprit for 'design problems' was the Laser2 mast; two for me but I've seen countless at opens and summer regattas.  Usually by tipping in with the kite up or running into the next wave with the kite up, but they were fragile if you had a clash of masts too (saw a few in the starting area but avoided that fate myself).

One thing that gets overlooked in the whole "big fleets are best" argument oft tripped out on these pages is the likelihood of having your pride and joy bashed by someone else in these 'big fleet' events goes up very sharply when numbers get above 40-50 on a start line and, before someone says it, yes I've also witnessed crashes on gate starts too (though thankfully only once it was me when I hit the guard boat during a youthful topper event at the worlds coldest lake, Grafham).

Originally posted by ?? Finn ... seems expensive for something that seems pretty robust ... [/QUOTE ] The high Finn cost is really because of the cost of a new mast - £3,000 and u

The high Finn cost is really because of the cost of a new mast - £3,000 and upwards. In reality they rarely break during normal sailing

Well, for balance, I haven't posted on this thread before, because I didn't think my experience isn't really exciting enough! I've managed to bend Laser topmasts a couple of times, but only by a small amount, so straightened them myself. I've once managed to bend both top and bottom mast together in a Laser, rolling it the shore break at Eastbourne. I've also once rolled a Contender under the same circumstances and got away with it, though a friend was not so lucky a week or so later. Over the past 10 years of paying insurance policies for 2 boats I've claimed back one Laser mast (both sections - bent on Sunday and sailing again on Wed, thanks to Noble). I reckon I'm not too bad a risk!

Seem to remember a Neal Macdonald quote "a mast is fastest just before it breaks"