This is more common than you think. I remember the maiden voyage of the LA PAZ trailerable boat made by Coastal Recreation back in the 70's - Roger was aware of that boat as it was built just around the corner from his shop and it was also the pre-cursor of a "Motor-Sailor" that Roger had been considering for some time also - they towed the boat down Baja for a Sea of Cortez regatta about 50 of us were participating in with Aquarius Boats. The owner, Whitney Peden, thought it would be a good venue to introduce the boat to the marketplace - SAIL magazing and a few others were also attending the event.
Mexico was such a great place to sail back in those days:
Well, the LA PAZ had a great sail in the Sea of Cortez, it's performance specs were not stellar, but it got a little press. One thing the LA PAZ taught everyone is that a "Motor-Sailor" without a planing hull was still just too slow under power to really be a crossover hit in the boating market - I think Roger was paying attention. Also, the LA PAZ had a really high free-board making it unwieldy in high winds, (
just like some other boats we know!) Yet, the reviews by skippers and others ignored the high free-board - they were willing to accept the disadvantage of the high free-board in exchange for all the interior room they gained from it. Experienced sailors were not afraid of high free-board and wind back in those days - it was a non-issue back then cuz sailors back in those days sailed in more extreme conditions than we do today (they had less forecasting and navigation technology back then so getting caught in bad weather was normal).
Anyways, after the 5 day event in Mexico we all packed up and started north back to the USA.
See that little bow hook on the front of the boat? Well, that hook broke on the trip back to the US. The boat ended up in the sand on the side of the road - it completely fell off the trailer during the trip home. No one is really sure what happened - either the trailer un-attached from the truck during tow, and the ensuing swerving around on the chain broke off the hook, OR the hook broke first and the boat twisted the trailer off the hitch. No one really knows what happened first - all we do know is that the trailer and the boat ended up on opposite sides of the road in the middle of the Baja desert.