SAN DIEGO—Former America’s Cup racing yacht Stars & Stripes USA 11 has been out of commission after a gust of wind during a sailing tour on July 15 snapped the mast in two spots. No one was injured during the incident.
Stars & Stripes has taken people out on public and private sailing tours nearly 3,000 times over the past 15 years. Stars & Stripes Captain and Co-Owner Lynn Hanna said this is the first time something like this has happened.
“Just the wrong time, the wrong place,” Lynn Hanna said.
On July 15, Stars & Stripes welcomed 12 passengers and seven crew members onboard for the usual three-hour ride through San Diego Bay.
The historic racing yacht was near the end of Harbor Island by Island Prime cruising from a wind out of the west blowing about 8 to 10 knots on a starboard tack when all of the sudden a loud noise cracked across the Bay.
“We’re still a little shell shocked,” said Bee Hanna, Lynn Hanna’s wife, who was also onboard when the mast broke.
Lynn Hanna said all of the sudden, the wind shifted 30 degrees and an unexpected gust clocking 17 mph broke the mast at the first and second spreaders...
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5 Responses
Ummm – a gust to 17 mph is barely a gust and I should hope this was the “first time it happened” because if this was a regularly occurrence, they shouldn’t be on the water. Perhaps a bit of boating knowledge would help the reporting.
I think I remember the Australian boat of this design era breaking in half and sinking in about 45 seconds. So, while these boats were pretty to watch sailing by, the extremes to which they pushed their construction were stupid. S-o-o-o, I guess you could say these boats were pretty, stupid. Sorry – couldn’t resist.
I find it hard to accept that a 17 mile gust in a 30 in a different direction would cause this catostrophic failure!!! There had to be a contributing failure of mast that went unnoticed.
Not a guest issue. Miss management of the running back stays while maneuvering is the most obvious cause.
Oh, after a little more reading after 1st remark I saw that S&S sank in 55′ of water off Point Loma after a steering box failure. Forgot about that one. Amusing photo of a bare mast sticking straight up out of the water though.