1100hrs Catherine, Jack, Lucy and I departed for Split to pick up Alex.

1239hrs: Arrived Split. Took dinghy to ACI marina to get supplies at chandlery, returned and replaced passerelle ropes (longer ones). Alex arrived about 1530. Picked him up in dinghy about 1600hrs. On the return, sailing on a beam reach in good wind, a small Allen bolt retaining the sheave shaft on the outhaul block, located on the mast, came loose. The block exploded under the load with the sheave flying over board. The outhaul rope, now vertical, bent the saloon top guide sheave mounting and stripped off a metre or so of outercasing from the Dyneema rope.

Lesson: every few weeks go around and check all sheave retaining hardware and tighten as required.

Uncle Al becoming aquainted with Lucy Grace

Good winds provided a fast sail back towards Milna until …….

A small Allen bolt, retaining outhaul sheave shaft on mast sheave, came loose and block exploded apart under load.

As a result the saloon top guide sheave bent under load as the angle of the outhaul rope turned vertical, the outer casing peeled back over a metre or so.