A charter boat captain pledged last night to return to sea within days after the 72-foot mast on his catamaran collapsed mid-sail ? leaving 25 passengers and three crew members miraculously uninjured.

Beez Evans described how he watched in horror as the mast on his 60-by-30-foot catamaran folded in half and fell down about a quarter of a mile off Shelly Bay on the North Shore yesterday afternoon.

?It was pretty fantastic,? the 26-year-owner of Bermuda Charter Ltd. told ?It?s devastating for me, obviously. But the beautiful thing is that when it came down no one was hurt and the boat wasn?t damaged. We were blessed that nobody was injured and that only the paint work was scratched.?

Mr. Evans said the collapse happened because of a worn fitting which was not spotted when the boat was last inspected.

He issued a mayday call just after 5.10 p.m. and two other vessels, the catamaran and power boat , quickly arrived to help.

They took the passengers, reinsurance workers out for the afternoon on a company trip, to Grotto Bay ? but not before Mr. Evans had served them tequila shots and beer from bar.

He said: ?They were a great crowd and it was an awesome experience for those guys. This has never happened in Bermuda to the best of my knowledge. It happens in the Caribbean probably about once a year.

?The was good enough to stop and offer any assistance and a dive boat also helped.?

He added: ?It?s called a catastrophic failure. We inspected the rig this past winter and it?s just one of those things that escaped us.

?It?s an unusual flaw in this particular fitting. We watched the cable come down and there?s a secondary cable but it?s not strong enough to sustain it by itself. I just watched the mast fold in half and it fell down.?

Mr. Evans said the mast and rigging was a write-off and would cost about $60,000 to replace, which he hopes will be covered by his insurance. was built in Cape Town, South Africa and was brought to the Island by Mr. Evans from Aruba in 2004. She was valued at $475,000 last year and has covered about 40,000 miles on the open ocean.

The boat, normally moored at Town Square, St. George, was initially towed by a Marine Police rescue boat towards Hamilton but then motored unaided to Dockyard for the broken equipment to be removed.

Mr. Evans said he hoped to run tours from Monday without a sail and would offer passengers a discount. ?You have to keep your head up,? he said. ?It?s coming up to the end of the season and we can?t afford to stop. If someone was hurt it might have been a different story.?

A duty officer at Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre (formerly Harbour Radio) said the accident was ?very uncommon?. He said there were three- to four-foot waves and the tow to Hamilton had to be stopped because of weather conditions.

?It could have been serious but luckily it wasn?t,? he said. ?No one was hurt and they had life jackets on board.?

He added that Marine Police responded immediately to the mayday call and arrived on the scene within five minutes with not far behind.

?We?d like to thank the two vessels in the vicinity that responded admirably.?