I finally pogoed a mast. It was at the Pier two weeks ago. I'd never seen the phenomenon before...mast pointing towards beach in the shore break, a wave catches the board and while raising it shoves the mast tip down into the sandy bottom, then the force of the wave drives board into mast like a pole vaulter until something...usually the mast...breaks. I'm told that oftentimes the broken mast will then tear up the sail's luff sleeve, making the pogo something you really want to avoid.
I knew about the dreaded pogo, but I'd imagined that they took place in big shorebreak. In my case it merely required a two-foot wave to do the trick, but I caught a lucky break (sorry) when my mast base extension broke, sparing the mast and sail.
I didn't think of myself as lucky at the time. I probably pouted. But it has since occurred to me that the breaking extension is desirable in pogo situations...the damage is to a much less expensive piece of gear than a mast, and any chewing up of the sail would take place at the foot, if at all. So I had been lucky.
Then more luck...with the break occurring where the extension entered the mast, I appeared to have enough of the lower extension to create a stubby extension. I measured the remaining unsullied carbon and compared it with a manufactured stubby I already owned. Indeed I had enough length, so out came the hacksaw to clean up the top, out came a pair of pliers to pull the plastic plug from the broken piece and insert it into the sawed off tip, and voila! I was back in business for sails requiring less extension.
So I was very lucky. I'd be grinning except for the pain it causes the lip I ripped up a few days ago. And as I've seen aluminum mast extensions bend, I'm thinking that carbon extensions are the call for wave sailing. Because given my skills (or lack thereof) in the surf, the odds are decent that my gear is going to get worked in the break some time in the future.
(Photos by Remy McFadden)
Bravo - Renew, Reuse, Recycle!
Posted by: Jon | February 16, 2009 at 08:46 AM
Nice fix!
For the record, I have seen many, many carbon extensions like this broken. Not worth it, to me!
Posted by: catapulting_aaron | February 16, 2009 at 12:16 PM
I'm one of me aaron.
Yeah, and i was taught from a very good sailor to use aluminum extensions. You wont get the critical failure with aluminum that you do with carbon, which can lead to extereme damage to the board, to say nothing of the precarious situation you could be faced with out at sea.
that being said, all my extensions are still carbon......
Posted by: george markopoulos | February 16, 2009 at 02:47 PM
George and Aaron...I'm suggesting that this breakage is desirable in the waves. You'd rather have your extension go than your mast (and shortly afterwards your sail.)
Aaron, for bay sailing stick with aluminum.
Posted by: the editor | February 16, 2009 at 04:03 PM
You got it right, Michael! If you're in a situation where something is going to snap, best for it to be a small, relatively inexpensive piece like the extension.
(FWIW, my current stubby has over 250 sessions on it, and it was built just like your new one is)
Posted by: Andy | February 17, 2009 at 09:05 AM
Might want to reconsider. Those carbon extensions can break in a wave without touching bottom. Then you could have a long swim in. They are truly the weak link.
The Aluminum Streamlined skinny extension combined with a good skinny carbon mast and one piece carbon boom will mean that you almost never break anything. Other then the board that is.
Posted by: George | February 24, 2009 at 01:19 PM
Well George, you are the Baron of Board Breakage and the Sultan of Stoke, not to mention husband of Jill Marr Superstar so your words weigh with me. Perhaps the mast is less of a risk than the swim.
Posted by: the editor | February 24, 2009 at 03:32 PM