Fixing Argon in Bermuda and Antigua

Bob Damiano

During our passage from Newport to Bermuda back in late October we had a failure of the outer headstay while crossing the Gulf Stream.  The following details the process of making Argon whole again.  Apologies for the geekery.

Disclaimer:

This post is not intended as a criticism of Tartan or of the Tartan 4000 (or any other modern Tartan model with a similar rig). We are huge fans of Tartan and the designs. We can not say enough about how helpful, responsive and proactive Tim Jackett and the team at Tartan were throughout the process. This post is also not intended as advice. We are not riggers. We are sailors who follow the advice of professional riggers. It is intended to just clearly say what happened, and what we chose to do about it based on the guidance of several helpful professionals. One of the positive outcomes of this experience is that we have a much deeper understanding of our rig now, and I find that I can't look at another boat now without fixating on how the various mast attachment points are done.  Other Tartan owners have asked "should we do what you did?".  My answer is always the same:  "Ask your rigger.  Don't ask us".  There's more than one way to rig a boat.

Rig details:

Argon has a Solent Rig... two headstays. The inner stay is the primary stay providing stability to the mast and carrying the 90% working Jib.  It is attached to the mast with a spoon (or lollipop) type fitting (more on this later). The outer stay is there mostly to carry the 150% genoa (reacher).  It is attached to a sheavebox near the top of the mast.   The mast is a keel stepped one-piece carbon fiber stick. 

Argon showing off her perfect dual head stays anchored in Guadeloupe shortly after the repairs were completed.

Upon arriving in Bermuda after the rig damage, a tired (but relieved) crew began the work of lowering the separated outer headstay.  The sheavebox that the outer stay attaches to broke out of the carbon mast.  It appears that a weld failed behind the mast wall at the top and that the box cantilevered out of the mast, breaking off a small bit of carbon at the bottom.

Why did it break?

The $64K question.  The winds were in a good range and direction for using the reacher, however the sea-state was not so ideal. We found ourselves in a suddenly degrading sea-state with steep/confused waves which continually rounded us up into the wind. Our hindsight being 20:20, we should have switched to the Jib as soon as we were no longer able to stay off the wind due to the confused seas.  Interestingly, most of the gulf stream passage was quite benign and this all happened just as we were exiting the stream.  We thought we were home free!

We don't know exactly when the separation occurred.  It was a very dark moonless night (this stuff always happens at night).  We were struggling to control Argon and keep her off the wind.  At some point, Linda turned on the deck light to examine the rig and it was clear that something was not right as the luff of the genoa bowed out in an exaggerated curve.  We were unable to furl in the genoa so I went forward on a tether and saw that the outer stay was loose and the furling drum was trashing itself to death in the bow pulpit rails. After about an hour of manhandling with two of us tethered on the foredeck wrestling with the drum and two in the cockpit trying to control Argon's position in the confused seas, we were able to get the genoa furled, albeit sloppily.  We now hobbled along with a flailing outer headstay still two days out from reaching Bermuda.

The state of argon upon arriving in Bermuda

The sheavebox. Note that the missing baking tab on the right (top) side. This is the weld that failed.

During the passage, we could have chucked the whole stay overboard but we were hoping to save the sail and the furler foil.  The stay hung on the reacher halyard safely during the passage.  Ultimately, the foil was so bent up, we ended up chopping it up in dumpster-sized bits. But the sail was repaired and salvaged.

Lowering the outer stay upon arrival in Bermuda

The outer stay foil sadly chopped up for the trash.

We immediately contacted Tartan with photos and details about what happened. Job one was to go aloft and inspect the carbon for significant damage. Linda went up with a gopro and got some very close-up detailed video which we shared with Tartan. The good news was that it appeared that other than the tab of carbon broken out at the bottom of the sheavbox opening, there were no other stress cracks or signs of the weave splitting or de-laminating.

At this point, we were dealing with Steve Hollis from Ocean Sails in Bermuda. Originally, we assumed we would need the stick taken out and the full repairs done in Bermuda. This was quite stressful as we really didn't want to be pinned down in Bermuda that long (for weather and expense reasons). 

Linda doing a close-up inspection and video

Hello, what's this? 

During one of Steve's many trips aloft, he noticed a broken strand on our inner stay wire!
We now had zero functional stays.  This was also one of those silver-lining moments.  If the outer stay didn't fail, we probably would have never noticed the damaged inner stay.  A failure of this stay offshore would have been catastrophic.  This is another learning experience and we would definitely not miss a detail like this in future rig inspections!  But, now we worried that with the even more substantial repairs needed, our Caribbean trip might not be feasible. Happily, the plan evolved into getting the inner stay repaired in Bermuda providing stability to safely sail; and continuing south to our next destination (Antigua) with only the inner (primary) headstay. We would continue and finish all repairs in Antigua. 

Subtle but critical failure: broken strand of the inner stay serendipitously discovered.

So, now the process was all about having a new inner stay built and installed.  This is when I first started getting educated on spoon/lollipop fittings.  Turns out that the original manufacturer of this spoon is no longer operating so they had to build the stay with a different brand.

The old and new lollipop fittings

Steve Hollis got the new stay ordered and it arrived from Florida within about a week.  We did careful measurements to compare the old and new fittings and Linda went aloft to verify that the new lollipop would fit in the existing backing plate.  Steve (with a little help from Linda and I and a few other folks along the docks) got the new inner stay built and installed.

Preparing the new Stay for installation.

Tim Jackett at Tartan had very quickly sent us a drawing of a modification to the outer stay sheavebox.  The backing plate would be lengthened downward and a "doubler" plate welded in to fill in the extra opening in the carbon. Steve arranged for some initial modification to the outer stay sheavebox including drilling out the pin hole for a clevis pin instead of the barrel pin that was originally holding the stay in.

Here is where we have to say how awesome Steve Hollis and and is family treated us. Ocean Sails was in the middle of a huge custom canvas project while we were there as well as many other sailboats arriving in Bermuda with various sail and rigging issues, but we never felt pushed aside by him. Steve's wife Suzanne and their son Austin (Austin also did a couple trips up our rig) were immensely helpful and friendly.  In fact, we found ourselves invited to a lovely pot-luck dinner at their house after this was all done.

 

And we're off...

With a few other repairs complete (nav light replaced, lazy-jacks rebuilt), we were ready to set off for Antigua with our single stay fractionally rigged Tartan 4000 after just three weeks in Bermuda.  As it turned out, the conditions for the passage would never have required a reacher anyway as winds were light and way in front of the beam for most of it.

Before leaving, Steve sent an email to Stan Pearson at Antigua Rigging to give the overview and tell him that we were on our way.  The response from Stan (which came while we were under way) was "I hope they're not in a hurry".

Nine (yes nine) days later, we arrived English Harbor, Antigua.  That passage was slow.  (Should have been only six!)

Antigua Rigging

Upon arriving in Antigua (and getting some sleep), we contacted Stan Pearson at Antigua Rigging and arranged to meet him at his office. We went over what happened and the proposed solutions from Tartan.  Although Stan's shop was way too busy to start any work for another several weeks, he did arrange for his local carbon expert to go aloft and have a look at the damage, and he started working on the repair plan.

Apart from the outer stay, Stan was quite interested in the inner stay and was suggesting that we should not be attaching it with a lollipop. He showed us a typical "nose tang" from a Selden Rig he had at his shop and really wanted to pursue somehow having that kind of attachment with a toggle.

A Selden Mast with a nose tang for the inner stay attachment.

Since Stan was buried in other projects, I gathered up the info I needed and contacted Tartan about an alternate attachment point design. Tartan's opinion was that the lollipop is adequate and they certainly have the track record on many hundreds of boats to back that up. Ultimately, on advice from Stan and following the opinions of other pros we consulted, we explained to Tartan that we really wanted to try and come up with a tang/toggle type attachment point instead of the lollipop and we would appreciate the help with a design.  Within a few hours, I had a detailed engineering drawing of a modification of the lollipop backing plate that had a nice hefty tang protruding through the mast suitable for attaching a toggle. Stan and his machinist and carbon expert were all very happy with the design. We just can't say enough about Tim Jacket and the guys at Tartan for coming through with this.

A snip of the modification drawing

Ok, but what about the one that actually broke?

The re-design of the outer sheavebox was fairly straightforward. The design from Tartan was generally agreed to in Antigua but with the addition of a toggle on this stay as well.

A couple of proposed toggles for the outer headstay

Christmas on Argon

We were really looking forward to Christmas. Not so much because it was Christmas but because "After Christmas" was when Stan figured he could get to us.  As expected, things started to move forward late December and early January.  Phil Hopton from Antigua Slipway Marine would handle the carbon work and his shop would do the final modifications to the outer stay sheavebox.  We tied up at slipway and Phil went aloft with a grinder and cleaned up the broken carbon. He got an accurate measurement of the new opening so that his shop could do the final welds and modifications on the sheavebox.

The modified sheavbox in progress.

Within a few days, the new box was mounted and we were able to do a point-to-point measurement on for the new wire.  Stan had already ordered the new furler and foil sections and they were expected to arrive the week of Jan7.

The next step was to move the boat to Catamaran Club Marina (near Antigua Rigging) for the final work. The furler and foil arrived at Antigua Rigging and the guys were busy building the new outer stay.

Sunrise at Catamaran Club Marina

The Antigua Rigging team

On more than one occasion, Stan told us how awesome everyone on his team was. It was very nice to see so much respect from the boss for the guys and gals who make all this stuff happen. One guy in particular, Deron, was up and down our rig more times than we could count and usually doing some very tricky and difficult stuff up there. This was not a typical job! Stan later said in an email about Deron:  "While this needed the team to make this happen overall Daron was the MVP on this exercise for sure for dealing with the non-standard issues".

Deron up the rig (again)

On one particularly long day, Linda baked corn bread for Deron and one of the other guys, Vishal.  She also made cookies for everyone in the shop.  We really really appreciated all the hard work!

Building the new stay

Our shiny new furler

Toggle on the end of the outer stay.

The new outer stay went on without too much drama and for about twenty minutes, Argon had two headstays again.  But then the inner stay was removed for the more tricky modification of the attachment.

Attaching the outer stay at the bottom.

All pinned in.

New outer stay attached to the modified sheavebox with a toggle.

Detaching the inner stay.

Inner stay ready to go back to the shop to be rebuilt.

Once the inner stay was off, Deron, removed the lollipop backing plate and brought it down to be modified per the drawing from Tartan.

The stock lollipop backing plate.

Lollipop backing plate rear side.

The backing plate with the lollipop in it.

Inner Stay

The backing plate went off to the machine shop along with the drawing from Tartan.  Within a few hours, it was complete. Stan was so pleased with it, he made a special trip out to the boat to show us.

Modified attachment plate with tang and toggle.

Closeup of the new part

Now, how to put that plate in the mast?

We knew the backing plate would not go back in through the hole from whence it came. But how would it get back inside the mast? Originally, the plan was to remove the outer stay (again), remove the sheavebox (again) and drop this new part in through the hole and lower it down inside the mast.  The only problem is, that after going through all that effort, the part didn't fit through the hole

Deron wondered if it could be lowered in through the mast crane (on the aft side of the mast). We also considered opening the hole a bit for the outer stay sheavebox to allow this to fit.  Stan emailed Tartan and Phil (local Carbon guy) to ask about going that route. Neither were very enthusiastic about removing any more carbon from the rig. I must admit, I was not liking that idea either. At this point, I asked Stan if we should give up on trying to do this without unstepping the mast.  He said that was "plan B".

Linda going aloft to see if the part will fit in the crane.

In the meantime, Stan gave us the homework of sending Linda up the mast again with the backing plate to see if it would fit into the crane and around the 90 degree bend.  Linda went up with the gopro and the part and got some great video. The part would fit inside the crane with no problem.  But she did NOT think it would fit around the bend where the main halyard sheave and axle is.

The next day, Deron went up to give it a try.  We assumed it would not fit around the bend and so he was going to have to remove the main halyard axle and sheave.  The only problem is that this is the halyard he is hanging from.

After being up there a while and struggling a bit, amazingly, we saw him pull the plate through the mast. This was an amazing feat and very good news indeed.

Messenger line holding the part which has been fed into the crane opening.

SUCCESS!!! Deron managed to fish that thing around the bend and out through the mast.

Now, we really felt like we were on the home stretch.  The outer stay was attached again and then the newly built inner stay brought out and attached to the new attachment point with a toggle.

Both stays attached with toggles. Someday when the mast is down, we will clean up and paint all the bruises from the flailing attachment plate.

All that was left to do now was to do a dock-side tuning and put the sails back on.

This was a long time coming... two months after the damage, we've got two head stays again.

Argon on a close reach towards Dominica with the new rig. It's good to be sailing and exploring again!

Take-aways

We feel like Argon is better than ever now.  We also feel like we know Argon better than ever.  We have a new respect for the power in that 150% Reacher and will be much more judicious about when to use it and when to keep it rolled up.  And we know better what to look for in rig fatigue.

Although this cost us two months of delay in our journey, most of the delay was in a place we love: Antigua. Ultimately, we were able to continue moving south along our planned route, albeit several weeks behind. We've put quite a few miles on Argon since the repair and everything looks and feels great so far.  Tomorrow we sail to Martinique!

Montserrat: Sailing, Volcano and Music

"Read the cruising guide and decide if you want to go to Montserrat or not" she said.  So I did, and it sounded interesting enough.  So our next destination after English Harbour, Antigua would be to the Southwest instead of due west to Nevis/St Kitts.

Bob Damiano

The reliable easterly Trade Winds made sailing to either Montserrat or Nevis/St Kitts very doable. The nearly equally reliable "Christmas Winds" made either of these sails a bit challenging as well.  During this time of year, the Trades are blowing more like 18-28kts instead of 15-18kts.  Doesn't sound like much of a difference but that whole 1/2mv² thing makes it a big difference! For a background on the Christmas Winds phenomenon, here is a great article written by our very own favorite weather router Ken McKinley.

In the Eastern Caribbean, there is nothing to the east to prevent seas from building up, and with the trades above normal for many days, things can get a bit fun out there.  Your simple "island hopping" puts you effectively in offshore conditions as soon as you leave a harbor.

Picking Our Day

As much as we loved Antigua and English Harbour in particular, we were itching to continue exploring.  The forecasts showed a slight decrease in winds and seas on Wednesday December 28 - very slight.  The passage would be about 35 nautical miles and would be nearly all in totally exposed water. We both popped a Stugeron that morning to lessen the chance of our stomachs rebelling.  We got a later start than we wanted because of the procedures at Customs and Immigration including putting me back on the crew manifest since I flew to the states and back the previous week.

Sunset over Montserrat viewed from English Harbor Antigua about 30 nautical miles away.

As predicted, conditions were a bit challenging. We were sailing almost dead downwind but the seas were hitting us at a shallow angle from behind.  Mostly 2 meter swells with an occasional group of a few 3 or 3.5m waves. Argon feels like a very tiny boat in these conditions!  It was a pretty rolly ride and we had to be hyper vigilant to avoid an accidental jibe.  We opted not to rig the preventor on this trip.  We started out on a port tack with a reefed main and only the 90% jib and that's what we still had going when we arrived in Little Bay, Montserrat 4 hrs 50 minutes later.

PFD and tether conditions on this trip.

Arriving at Little Bay

As soon as you round the northern tip of Montserrat, you are in sight of Little Bay - the main anchorage and entry point.  Well - it's the main one now but before the devastating volcanic eruptions in 1995-1997, Plymouth to the south was the main port of entry and indeed the capitol city. Now it is an abandoned disaster area in a strictly enforced exclusion zone (from land and sea). Much more on all this later.

From the sea, Montserrat is spectacular with huge mountains and sheer cliffs and lush jungle. You can see the highest mountain to the south and see the gasses still escaping from the Soufriere Hills Volcano.

Montserrat about 5 miles away

Little Bay has a reputation in the cruising guide and on Active Captain for being a bit rolly.  After what we went though in Dominica, our idea of rolly is very different with higher thresholds of tolerable conditions. In here, there are some small swells that come in from the northwest. Since you are usually facing east in the anchorage, you do get rolled a bit but it was well within our comfort range.

Argon in Little Bay as seen from the beach bars. The rocky island of Redonda is in the background about 12 miles away.

Argon anchored in Little Bay taken from a distant hill during our tour

"Argon, Argon, Come in Please" came over the radio about as soon as we dropped anchor.  Wow - is customs watching AIS and contacting us already?  No - it was none other than Joe Phillip (regarded very highly in the Doyle Cruising Guides) offering to give us an island tour.  This guy is very enterprising.  He monitors AIS, Air and Sea communications and basically knows when anyone is coming to the island. He is very quick to beat his competition at contacting you and offering his services.

We got to land (there is no dinghy dock per-se, just a small platform along the commercial dock/ramp). We got finished with Customs fairly quickly, painlessly, and inexpensively then met Joe outside of one of the beach bars where we planned our tour for the next day.

Overnight, a couple of small tankers approached and anchored out in deeper water awaiting daylight. Early the next morning, one them (a container ship) approached the dock/ramp and attempted to offload. The ship and its ramp were bouncing off of the concrete dock in the swells and they ultimately gave up and returned to the deeper water anchorage.  Later, they came back in and for a second successful attempt at offloading. This harbor could really use a breakwater and apparently one is in the plans.

Containers being offloaded in Little Bay

About Joe Phillip / Avalon Tours
Joe is a lifelong resident of the island.  When the eruptions started and they evacuated his town, they told everyone it would be for a weekend and put them in "temporary" housing in a school. Well, that temporary situation turned into weeks, months and years and the evacuated areas are still uninhabited. Joe's old town is about to "celebrate" the 20th Anniversary of the evacuations and have cleaned up a few buildings and fields in the old neighborhood for a gathering in early 2017.  Joe had the amazing foresight to take and collect lots of photos and videos.  Photos of mundane things like street corners, the high school, a church, a golf course - stuff that no one would normally waste film on. But he knew that these would become anything but mundane and instead would become amazing/unbelievable "before" pictures of the devastation to come.

Joe showing us one of his hundreds (and hundreds) of photos of scenes of the island before the devastation. This photo is of the spot where the vehicle is stopped now.

What sets Joe apart from his competition is that he brings these photos and videos along on the tour on a very large screen iPad.  He is constantly stopping and pulling up photos of your location to give you the contrast of then vs. now.  Some of this reminds me of photos of Centralia, Pennsylvania in the states (the town that was abandoned after a coal fire started under it) but here, it's on a mega (seriously, mega) scale.  The before pictures show streets and sidewalks, with curbs, houses, street lights and gardens. What you see out the windshield is a jungle with a barely visible collapsing roof here and there.

In case Joe doesn't contact you first, he can be reached on phone and WhatsApp at 1-664-492-1565 or by email at joephillip@live.com.

There is a ton of information and photography / video about the Montserrat Volcano online.  I'm probably not adding anything significant other than the impression it had on us to see it first-hand.

Special Permission - Exclusion Zone

When we were clearing out of customs in Antigua someone overheard that we were going to Montserrat and said "you have to go to in to Plymouth!".  I asked if he took a tour and he said "no, we just went.  It's totally illegal but you have to do it".  

This is very bad advice!  We asked Joe and there is a legit way to see Plymouth but it requires some red tape and a bit more money. They take this exclusion zone thing very seriously, so don't "just go". Do it right.  Essentially, Joe has to get permission from the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) and a police escort. The latter costs an additional $150EC.  The next day, permission was granted (based on the threat level) and we were to meet the police at the gate of the exclusion zone at 10AM.

The Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) - a playground for geologists. Soufriere Hills Volcano is one of the most actively monitored volcanoes in the world.

Chopper at the MVO; Soufriere Hills Volcano is in the background

Panoramic photo with labels at the MVO

Soufriere Hill Volcano in the distance as viewed from the MVO

Zoomed in a bit on the volcano

The no-go zone. They won't have a sense of humor if you are in here without permission

While in the exclusion zone, you are not to venture very far from the vehicle and the vehicle engine must be kept running at all times.  The police van is never too far away either. The tour guide is also given a two way radio which keeps him in contact with the MVO at all times. Joe had to report our position every 15 minutes or so.  Like I said, they are serious about this stuff.  Joe pointed out some "escape roads" that have been cleared in case something happens.

Plymouth

The former capitol city of Montserrat was totally destroyed in the eruptions that started in 1995-1997.  It is buried under meters of mud, ash and volcanic flows from all the subsequent eruptions (as recent as 2010).  Any single story building is completely underground. Only the three and four story buildings rise above this and give a hint of their former structure. You see lots of rooftops at ground level.

Me and Joe walking along a former market towards a former Hotel (round building on the left)

This was a busy downtown street now buried under 5-10 meters of ash and mud

More scenes of a former vibrant, busy downtown with the volcano in the background

Linda in front of the 3rd and 4th story of this building

second story

Plymouth in the debris field of Soufriere in the background

Overlooking what was once the flourishing capital city of Plymouth; the volcano is in the background still spewing sulfur plumes

The Rest of the Tour

We had to do Plymouth first because of our arranged time with the police escort.  After this, Joe did his more "standard" tour with us.  As it turns out, you can get great views of the Plymouth Ruins without actually going into the exclusion zone, but I'd still recommend that you do if you come all this way!

Now. The pyroclastic lava flows consist of huge amounts of ash and mud. The mud and ash form a new rich soil bed for vegetation to flourish. There are several buildings partially covered in ash and completely covered now in brush and trees.

Then

Joe took us all over the island making numerous stops and showing us how things were before on his iPad (I told him I really hope he has good backups of these photos).

High school, second story. The ash/mud road is more than 6 feet above the original road.

The MVO from below

Abandoned Condos

Musical Connection

As a special treat for me, there also happens to be the remains of a very illustrious recording studio here.  Associated Independent Recording (AIR) Montserrat was built by Sir George Martin (the fifth Beattle of course) to be a sister facility to his AIR in the UK but in an exotic location.  The Police recorded Synchronicity here. Jimmy Buffet (no Jimmy Buffet jokes) recorded Volcano here.  The Stones, Elton John, Pink Floyd, and many many other big names have been through this place.

Today, AIR Montserrat is in ruins and is abandoned. It was not the volcano that did it in, but a combination of Hurricane Hugo and a changing Music Business that killed it after ten active years creating great music in the 1980's.

Here is the late Sir George himself talking about AIR and Montserrat as he walks through the ruins.


The studio is closed to the public, but it's location is well known if not a bit out of the way.  It is even called out on the panoramic photo at the MVO.

Joe drove us through the gate up to the property and waited outside as I walked the hallowed grounds. The complex is a large house with an incredible mountain view and a swimming pool with a studio building next to it.

At the entrance of the house

The pool. I told Linda that Sting probably swam naked in here.

Me walking into the studio

The control room with the glass looking into the live room behind me

The live room. Note the beautiful wooden diffusion in the ceiling and the stone wall sections. The light colored wall on in the background is also a stone diffusion wall.

Linda in the control room

The trashed doghouses where the main studio monitors once were

An iso room. The floors in here were very squishy so I didn't walk through it.

Me in the live room.  Why didn't I think to at least record a hand clap impulse on my phone?

The live room looking back towards the control room

Power breakers

Looking out of the studio back toward the pool and house

The parties that must have taken place here!

Out at the main gate

AIR Montserrat as seen from the MVO (and zoomed in)

In case it's not clear: We think Montserrat is a must-visit place for anyone - sailor or landlubber. If you ever get confident in humankind's ability to build anything - anywhere it wants, just come here for a day. You very quickly realize who is boss between earth and humans. If you are not a sailor, Montserrat has a perfectly good airport! You can also do a ferry here from Antigua (although at the time, googling for information on this was not very successful).

Our few days on Montserrat will be some of the most unforgettable ones of this whole voyage.

It also must be said that although most people focus on the volcano and destruction to the south, the north of this island is very safe, vibrant and beautiful. Many people apparently believe that Montserrat is totally abandoned but in fact, there is still a population of around 5,000.  The government offices have all been re-established in the north as well as schools, hospitals, banks and a surprisingly robust infrastructure overall.