The mast came down… but not for the reason I expected. In ~50 mph winds I was convinced something structural would fail – aluminium, couplers, shackles. No. Instead, everything survived. The real issue? Rope stretch!
It turns out poly rope can elongate far more than you think under load (22%). Once the top guy stretched far enough, the geometry flipped and the mast effectively pulled itself over. No snap, no bang – just a slow, graceful failure.
In this video I strip it back, work out what actually happened, and start the rebuild properly. We look at guy tension, stretch vs stability, and why temporary rope is useful for prototyping before moving to Dyneema.
A great reminder that in antenna building, the weak point isn’t always where you expect — and sometimes failure is the best teacher.
Rebuild Part 2 coming next week. Stay tuned!