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For sure! My father in law had his winch break last year and the safety chain broke with it. He was towing a heavy 25' Maycraft fishing boat up a steep hill to his workshop without any rear tie downs. He's been boating for 30 years and said he thought the boat was so heavy on the bow that it would never come off. The boat ended up off of the trailer nearly sliding all the way down the gravel hill. Can't stress the importance of safety enough.
Yup, that second pic seems to correlate my initial impression. I don't think they are anywhere near the ramp. Looks like they were hauling down the road at 20-30mph, maybe even a hard acceleration on a left hand turn (note the angle of the skid). Winch strap broke off, boat came off the trailer, and before they could realize, was careening down the road. No safety chain, no bow straps. I'm chalking this one up to negligence.
Hey, this has happened to me. I was asked to tow an old fiberglass Chris Craft out of a back yard. A scrap yard had agreed to dispose of the boat off in exchange for the trailer.
It would have been impossible to take it out through the yard so they (distant family) asked if I would tow it over the farmland hill behind their home. I hooked up the trailer expecting the steep muddy hill to be the biggest problem. As I approached the crest of the hill the boat slid off of the trailer. The winch had a steel cable and was not the problem. The bow eye had pulled through the hull bringing it's reinforcing plate with it.
A large amount of water that had been spread throughout the boat was now at the stern. I drilled a few holes to let it drain out.
I set the trailer up with chocks near the road and elevated the tongue so the bunks were near the ground. Then I went back to the boat and linked up some 2" straps to go all the way around it. I pulled it to the trailer then setup the straps with my truck in front of the trailer and the boat behind. Then I pulled the boat back onto the trailer.
The scrap yard took it from there. I wish I had setup a camera!
That boat must have been fully on the ground before they hit the brakes or the trailer would have stopped it. Perhaps it even got towed there on the ground afterwards. Look at how long the paint strip is on the pavement, the direction of it, and the slope along the way to where it finally stopped. That boat either had some serious momentum or energy continued to be introduced. My guess is very very heavy on the gas pedal when pulling out after retrieving or maybe even lunched it and forgot to take off the winch strap when pulling back out with too much gas pedal. Very unfortunate as it WAS a great overall color and graphics scheme IMO.
Next time my family gets on my case about double checking stuff when launching or retrieving I will show them this photo.
Since we all seem so eagle eyed did anyone else notice what appears to be cigarette ash on the door and dash of the vehicle where the photo was taken from along with the marks on the A pillar and the B pillar in the mirror? IMO seeing that and the kid in the back is worse than seeing the boat on the ground. Hopefully that does not happen with the kid in the vehicle.
