Hello everyone, this past weekend I went out for a sail on my Prindle 16 cat with my daughter and girlfriend. Wind conditions were normal 9-10 mph. We had just completed a tack and after picking up some speed unexpectedly I hear a snap and simultaneously the mast came down like a ton or bricks!!!!!!!! Luckily the mast went down opposite side of us and towards the stern. No one was injured but boy was it scary!!! After assessing what went wrong I realized that the port side shroud snapped at the bottom by the loop. I purchased the vessel knowing that the cable had one strang of wire that was broken. PLEASE DONT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE if your shrouds have a broken strang replace them immediately!!! You might not be as lucky as I was.

Good advice! A lot of us on here are super conservative when it comes to standing rigging, and that is exactly why! Most recommend that the first thing you do when buying a used boat (definitely if it's over 10 years old) is replace the wires. It's not all that expensive and saves lots of pain later.

Once you see a strand go it's time to replace. Also why a lot of people prefer bare wire to coated (although I like my coated shrouds but I'm in fresh water).

Lastly triple check and tape your ring dings. It's easy to do but if they work loose or let go you get the same effect!

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Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2 "Lucile"
1986 Nacra 5.7 "Belle"
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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I am a recent convert to the "replace often" camp. Working with and around swaged cable all the time, I was certain I would see some sort of tell-tale sign of impending failure. Wrong. We came 4 strands from loosing the shroud (and possibly the mast) one day after a very thorough inspection. Any loose strands you for sure need to replace the rigging, but even that is no guarantee as to its integrity. failed at the mast as well - never saw it until we couldn't get the halyard to move....

Cb

I'm of the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" persuasion myself.
Of course that does mean inspect often and replace on the slightest suspicion.
I once replaced my forestay pigtail preventively and it pulled out while rigging. It was brand new, done by a trusted specialist, it looked good and even so it failed miserably.
That settled the matter for me, no more replacing stuff that isn't showing signs of weakness.
You do need to inspect swage terminals well though, a casual inspection often will not reveal broken strands held in place by the surrounding intact strands. You need to bend the wire a little to show up hidden defects.