MacGregorSailors.com

First, this is not my boat; second, if the owner is on this board, I apologize and will show nothing to indicate who you are.
A friend of mine lives at a marina in Tampa Bay, and this is the story he told me this morning:
Recently a nice new Mac comes to the marina for on the trailer storage. The marina is wide open with no obstructions so it is great for leaving the mast up: As long as you stay in the marina.
This past weeknd the owner was removing the boat from the water, and decided it would be easier to get into his boat storage spot by "taking her around the block and pulling in forward"
Quickly he hit some power lines

You can see the arc marks on the mast.
The mast then split at the spreaders

I was told it hit the ground doing some light damage to the hull side and dragged the roller furled jib on the pavement.
Here is the end result after lashing the mast back to the deck


Ouch, such a sad beggining for a new Mac.

Yikes!!!

I had a near miss once at the boat ramp in St. Augustine, FL...my first overnight trip. Launched in Jacksonville and recovered in St. Augustine. My Dad drove the SUV and brought the trailer to me in St. Augustine.

VERY shallow water at the ramp and no piers. So I attempted to motor onto the trailer. Dad had to wade out to catch and guide the bow in and winch the boat up into the bow roller. Then he jumped in the SUV and started pulling the boat out with me in the cockpit. Instead of stopping he decided to pull up into the parking area to get room for the de-rig. But there are power lines there and he didn't see them. And he had the windows up, the A/C on, and the radio on...I about went hoarse screaming and whistling to get his attention. He stopped with about 3' from the power lines...whew!

Boaters beware...danger lurks beneath, on, and above the water...and above the parking lots and ramps.

Jim

The mast folded back on itself at the spreaders... That's horrible! Hopefully nobody was injured. Those are some pretty severe burns at the top of the mast.

I scout my ramps, access roads and parking thoroughly before ever raising the mast. We have some ramps which were never intended for trailer sailors. Our State maintained public accesses tend to have at least one clear path.

I feel sorry for the owners of that boat; must be heartbreaking.

...Doug
http://starsloop.blogspot.com

Back when we had our Mac, we actually hit a power line on the WATER! When we lived in Texas, we kept our boat on Lake Buchanan, which is up the chain a bit from Lake Travis, near Austin. Wonderful lake for sailing - big, wide, and not too crowded (unlike the zoo that Lake Travis can be). One afternoon, we decided to nose our way up a cove to anchor and go swimming. Part way up the cove, the boat suddenly heels sharply. My wife and I look everywhere, but there is nothing visible! We are motoring slowly, no sails up, so what is doing this!?!? I happen to hear something and look up - there is a power line CROSSING the water!!! Fortunately, the line was at a sharp angle, so we got redirected along the direction of the line, rather than fully stopped. All it cost me was a destroyed Windex and my dignity, but I've always wondered why we didn't get zapped. Maybe it was telephone instead of power? No clue, but I had the shakes for hours after that.

If anyone is curious, that power line is over the cove crossed by RR 2341 on the North side of Lake Buchanan. Looking at Bing Maps, I think it is still there. We contacted the LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority), but they didn't really seem to care. Now that we sail a big Beneteau, our sailing territory is in water where stuff like that is charted (usually), but I still try to watch for it.

Dean Thomas
Cape Coral, FL
Formerly Lion's Paw, 1999 MacGregor 26X
Now Second Wind, 2001 Beneteau 361