Report by
Bill Wagner
Prospector, the Mills 68 that was chasing the Annapolis-to-Newport Race record, was dismasted in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
Prospector was sailing upwind in 20-25 knots of wind and pounding into eight-foot seas in the Atlantic Ocean when the rig failed around 3 a.m.
Annapolis resident Marty Roesch, one of four owners of the high-tech racing machine, said the headstay parted at the mast and the entire rig came down.
“The tang for the forestay sheared off for reasons we don’t know yet,” Roesch said. “We were pounding upwind in heavy air and high seas. There was 20,000 pounds of load on the backstay. When the forestay failed the backstay pulled the rig down.”
Roesch said the mast fell
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