To prevent the mast breaking:

• Double up on the spacers at the mast-gate.
• Replace the pathetic old eye-bolts, with the vastly over-engineered half-inch diameter steel eyebolts.
• File off the inside of the spreaders and / or put spacers between the spreaders and the mast (stops the inside of the spreaders puncturing the mast.
• Pull the kicker on when the spinnaker is up in a blow and things are looking dodgy.
• Only gybe in very deep water

To stop the tiller extension breaking:

• Put a length of thinner Aluminium tubing inside the existing tiller extension.
• Don't sit on the tiller extension.
• Let go of the tiller extension when falling backwards out of the boat.

To stop the spinnaker sheet getting caught:

• Make sure the string tying in the wings is tied round the shrouds, then cleat under the wing as normal.

To sort out the rudder:

• Remove the tiller from the stock and put tiny metal spacers in front of and behind the bolts to stop them moving in the slots.
• Use a piece of string to tie the rudder down. (Don't use pins, they break or bend and can't come up. Alternatively they are too effective and the rudder breaks)
• Make sure there is a backing plate behing the rudder stocks.

To stop you sliding round the bow in a crisis:

• Put non-slip or roughened gel-coat from the shrouds right the way up to the bow. You never know where you might be walking.

To prevent the boom breaking:

• Use webbing straps for the mainsheet that have the rivet on top of the boom. The old ones had D-rings at the bottom of the boom. Eventually these all break due to fatigue failure in the rivet holes.
• If you can't obtain any webbing, then you must make sure the existing shackles that hold the 28mm blocks on the boom, are fitted downwards and not upwards (U). The pin should go throug the block and NOT through the eye on the boom.

To prevent the battens tearing through the sail:

• Put a small bolt through the middle of the plastic batten fittings close to the mast track. This prevents the batten from pushing through the sail at the mast.

To prevent the main halyard breaking:

• Replace the kevlar halyard with a decent dyneema halyard

To preserve your health:

• Avoid drinking with Mike Speller and / or Pete Lindley