Thanks to all of you for your responses to my posting re: my vacation disaster. Or actually near disaster as no one was injured or thrown over board. I will send all the broken pieces to Bob as soon as the weather allows me to spend time out on top of the boat on the trailer. The thimble piece has already been removed from the boat and that shows that all the wire sheared at the area where it entered the thimble. I suspect that when one wire sheared, and started to unwind, all the rest were forced to do the same. It has been depressing to leave beautiful sunny FL and have a week of wet, dreary, cold weather, along with the rush of work, and Christmas prep. I doubt that wire cutters would have done me any good, first of all, they would not have been handy and second, as I really needed the remaining stays to help keep the mast and boom from being totally lost. Yes, this is a new boat, been in the water probably 10 times all total. Also, since I read all that you guys post, I have been very conscious not to kink the stays when stowing on the trailer. The bright side of this cloud is that it was the last sail of the season anyway. ===== Time for a cool change! Sandra(Seawitch #617) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing. http://photos.yahoo.com/