Well, that's one way to drop a boat....

[Sock Puppet]

Sorry, folks, I can't get the video upload to work. I hate clicking links that I don't know, so don't expect you to. It's a video of a sailboat sliding off a trailer, and kind of painful to watch. No affiliation, but I feel for the owner.

http://www.break.com/video/boat-goes-up-boat-comes-down-2667015

 

[dscribner]

I launch/load my Lancer 25 from a roller trailer every weekend. It doesn't go down the hill without the transom straps, the winch strap and the safety chain all engaged. Coming out, I skip the transom straps. Before I hit tbe road, I add straps abaft the fore hatch.

Rookies.

 

[Nils T]

That is a excellent reminder of why it is important to secure your boat when you move it. Any thing can happen. Thanks for the video.

 

[Skipper]

It looks like the bow strap broke.
It really hit the rudder hard. Rudder damage rudder box etc probably toast. But the hull caught on a trailer support and it let the boat down easy on her side. Maybe not a total loss.

 

[duality]

i think that guy should of had that bow line alittle tighter, he looks like a husky fellow that could hold back 10,000 lbs!

seriously, what was his job in the operation?

 

[kloudie1]

OUCH ! Looks like something under the keel gave way? like a big timber cross brace.. I hear a big "CRACK" just before it all turns to manure. My brother's Pearson 303 fell off the stands during a thunderstorm in Mobile.. didn't look all that bad until we got inside and smelled... battery acid.. the force of the side smash dislodged the batteries and they broke on the opposite side of the cabin .. pretty much totaled the insides.. not good..

 

[Daydreamer]

Video quality is pretty bad, but if you look at the hull aft of the keel you can see it is not touching the rollers as they are coming up the ramp. That trailer may not have been set up for that boat. Bummer.

 

[Sock Puppet]

Now that I watch it a bit closer, did the hitch pop off the ball to cause the tip backward? Right at 20 second or so.

 

[Perfect Excuse]

Another way to drop a boat

My neighbour had a similar experience with the lovely 26 wooden sailboat that he built. He forgot to tie it to his trailer. At 100 kph (60 mph), those boat rollers work well!

 

[centerline]

Yep.... that is pretty good way to drop a boat, and its actually one of the cheaper ways that has been invented.
but for real colossal damage you can rent a crane and do a much better job of it....
when dropping boats off of trailers that way, you really do get the most bang for the buck from a fin keeled sailboat, cuz you're never really sure which way is going to fall.
this one sure didnt waste a moment for it to make up its mind and decide what it really wanted to do with its freedom. as soon as it realized there was no way it could pass itself off as a bilge keeler, it just gave up and layed down...

it is my opinion that if the boat would have been supported in the usual manner, it would not have rolled off the back of the trailer, because even when the trailer tongue came loose from the truck, the capeted bunks would have prevented it from sliding back.
once it settled back on the rollers, instead of carpeted supports, history quickly began to be written about a sailboat on its side on the launch ramp....

bow strap or no bow strap, there is a lot to be said AGAINST load carrying rollers, under any kind of load, on ANY KIND trailer.... boat trailers especially.
just because the inventor of such things said it was a good idea, it really wasnt.

 

[SenecaDaze]

Maybe the self deploying fenders deployed on starboard side also and saved the day

 

[sfgary]

WOW that sucks! So sorry for the owner. That ramp is in Alameda Ca just a couple of blocks from where I keep my boat and right next to where Stu Jackson keeps his.

 

[Chris Patterson]

Yep, the hitch let go.

 

[Kermit]

If the guy hiding the bow line had just held a *little* tighter...

 

[Joe]

Next time he'll use the right trailer, notice the rear jack stands were never touching the boat. The bow line should have been tied off to the back of the truck, or the trailer itself... or even better the anchor chain. In any event the high angle couldn't keep the boat from tilting back.... leverage finished the job. That's a good example of why you pay the yard to do the haul out.

 

[sailormanbigd]

my 2 cents

My take on the situation is: I think that the bow line is from an electric winch on top of the tow vehicle. I think the winch brake (if engaged at all) let go and allowed the whole thing to happen? I don't know much about the use of those winches but if the bow were held fast to the truck the trailer tongue could come off it it wanted and the boat/trailer would still be pulled up the ramp. I forgot to tighten the trailer tongue to my ball hitch one day and it popped off the hitch and I dragged the whole rig down the road for 100 ft or so. Now I know why the safety chains are there.

 

[DougM]

Looks like another smooth move by Bubba's Boat Transporters. The keel made a great pivot point and gravity did the rest. No bow to tie the bow to the trailer, and the rear pads nowhere near the bottom of the hull. I wonder what the insurance company will say (if there was one).

I saw something similar, with an old wooden keelboat. It wasn't tied down to its trailer and as the setup crossed a major intersection at about 40 mph, the boat slid off and nearly beat the truck and trailer across the intersection. Needless to say, a perfectly good old boat probably became cordwood and scrap metal.

 

[rgranger]

Now that I watch it a bit closer, did the hitch pop off the ball to cause the tip backward? Right at 20 second or so.

That is what I thought when I watched it... and it did not look like he had a strap to a bow eye either.