Short answer
After a grounding or knockdown, inspect the whole load path for overload rather than looking for obvious breakage. Check chainplates and their below-deck structure, the mast step and partners, spreader roots, terminals and turnbuckles for distortion, and re-check mast straightness and tune. Record the event in the yacht’s rigging history regardless of what you find.
Overload damage frequently looks like nothing. A grounding drives load into the rig through the hull in a direction the designer never intended, and the result may be an elongated pin hole, a slightly bent turnbuckle body or a hairline crack — none of them dramatic, all of them significant.
Work the structure as hard as the rigging. Chainplate attachments, bulkheads, knees, the mast step and the partners all take the shock. Look for new cracking in tabbing, movement, fresh staining and paint or gelcoat crazing that was not there before.
Re-check the tune afterwards. A rig that has been shocked may no longer be straight or centred, and a mast that will no longer tune the way it used to is itself evidence that something has moved.
Record the event whatever the outcome. "Grounded [date], inspected [date], findings…" belongs permanently in the rig history — insurers, surveyors and future buyers all need it, and it changes how the next inspection is read. See how to keep rigging records.
Step by step
Inspect chainplates and structure
Above and below deck: cracking, movement, fresh staining, damaged tabbing.
Check the mast step and partners
Look for distortion, new cracking and movement where the spar is supported.
Examine every terminal
Cracking, distortion, elongated pin holes, bent turnbuckle bodies, sprung toggles.
Go aloft
Spreader roots and tips, mast tangs, upper terminals and the section itself.
Re-check straightness and tune
Sight the track and re-measure centring. A rig that will not tune has moved.
Record the event
Date, circumstances, findings and anything you could not verify visually.
Key facts
- What you are looking for
- Overload evidence, not obvious breakage
- Most overlooked area
- Below-deck chainplate structure and the mast step
- Useful diagnostic
- A rig that no longer tunes the way it used to
- Always do
- Record the event in the rig history whatever the findings
Full background: read the guide
Primary sources
Regulatory statements are checked against primary sources rather than secondary summaries. See the editorial policy.