Unposted
Along with my daughter and a friend of hers, we left Newport on Saturday around 0800 heading for Block Island, trying to get there ahead of (or not long after) the racers in the Mitchell Regatta, for which I am the organizer. It was a decent traditional southwesterly, with wind speeds around 15-20 knots and the seas were good size, up to 6 feet or so and oddly confused. We had a full main and a 100% jib which worked well. As we got past Beavertail, we decided to tack in by the Narragansett shore hoping for a little reprieve from the seas. As we neared Point Judith, my daughter yelled up from the v-berth "did you hear that bang?". I hadn't but looked around and noticed the leeward shrouds were unusually slack. As I was pondering the cause, my daughter yelled again "the post is moving!" I realized she was talking about the mast compression post, so I immediately depowered and doused both sails, started the outboard, and turned downwind back towards Newport. After ...
