Back on November 5th Gary Elmer asked about how a shaft strut could become bent and at the time I couldn't conceive how that would be possible on a sailboat. In the ensuing weeks I've had some time to think about it and might have an answer. Mind you, this is entirely hypothetical and probably wouldn't happen to anyone we know. Suppose you finally get an appointment on Wednesday morning to have your Hunter 33 pulled out of the water and set on the trailer with the mast laid down on deck after several false starts due to extreme wind. It's a cold day, 25 degrees F and your 3GM30F doesn't want to start. At all. It finally starts and you make the 20 minute run around to the marina. You discover that boat shoes are not very effective at keeping toes warm. Despite an 8:00 am appointment there's a big power boat hogging the lift. The marina tells you that 8:00 has become 10:00. Now you have concerns about making it to work at 3:00 an hour and a half away. At 10:30 they're finally ready for you and the mast comes down without too much trouble. Instead of man handling the boat around to the lift you motor out into the river to swing it around to back into the lift slip. In the confusion and rush you haven't noticed your nice new, STRONG Stayset X halyard dragging in the water off the port side. As you use the prop walk to swing the stern around (mind you, this is all hypothetical) your mast jumps, and your engine stops with a slam and bang! You realize immediately as you float down the river what has happened and that the only way you're getting the diesel running again is to dive into the 45 degree river water to free the prop, which you KNOW is not going to happen in this lifetime! You deploy your auxiliary outboard which you keep on the stern for situations just like this, and motor back into the slip where setting the boat on your trailer goes without a hitch. Once you get the boat backed into your yard and bottom washed, you take some time to check the shaft, strut and prop. There is a shiny band on the shaft aft of where it rides in the cutless. Your engine hasn't moved, and the output flange is ok. The shaft is hard to turn by hand where it wasn't before, and the rubber cutless shows unnatural compression points and excess space indicating it is out of line, and then notice that your prop is no longer aimed directly at the rudder, but is slightly off to the port side. The halyard wrapping up on the shaft between the prop and strut appears to have have acted just like a screw jack, pushing the strut forward, away from the prop, as well as pulling the strut over to the port side. Luckily, you find there appears to be no real damage to the almost new halyard. You find that no amount of pushing, beating or coercion will bring the strut back in line. You find the inscription "Dahmer Marine N.J." on one side and "H-33" on the other under the layers of bottom paint. You find the phone number, 732-264-5799 for Dahmer Marine Hardware, 104 Park Ave, Keyport, NJ, in the "MPC (Marine Publications Company) New Jersey edition phone book. You learn that Hunter might direct you to them also. You might call, and learn they have the strut ready to go for only $249.70 with the cutless included and installed. You rush right down the next day to grab it before they go out of business like so many of Hunter's suppliers from that period have. You discover however, they are a viable concern and still make underwater bronze for the likes of Henriques, Luhrs, Silverton and so-on. In talking with George there you might learn that the strut is manganese bronze and retains a certain amount of memory, and that by heating and bending, if you could come up with tools and jigging you might get it back to original. You'd probably decide that with the new strut in hand why bother? Mind you, this is just a fantasy hypothetical scenario to provide a possible answer to your question and we don't know of anyone who frequents this site who would be silly enough to have something like this happen to them! And you're only 2 minutes late for work.