We were flying a kite at the time and the line had become jammed on the winch. As a result, we couldn't spill any wind and the pressure of the wind on the 3 sai

We were flying a kite at the time and the line had become jammed on the winch. As a result, we couldn't spill any wind and the pressure of the wind on the 3 sails was so strong that the boat was being dragged along (had been doing about 20 knots before it happened). The skipper decided to dump the line that was holding the spinnaker pole back, which turned out to be a terrible idea. Obviously that line has all the force on it, so the spinnaker pole shot forward and snapped in half on the forestay (thank God it didn't take the rigging out). It didn't really ease the pressure and the kite was still flying. Luckily (or not) the kite ripped under the force. It was still pulling us along but because enough pressure had come off everything by this stage we were able to get the main down. We ended up having to drop the kite in the sea and then spent a couple of hours getting it back on board. It was a pretty exciting afternoon :-)