Drove under a tree, but seems OK or not?

Hi everyone and Happy New Year!

I did something bad last year. After a good sail I pulled the boat from the water and drove under a tree limb.

The mast was obviously up. The main was down. The jib was up. Forestay was connected but not tensioned. The cat was tied to the trailer with two tie downs in the front.

As I drove under that thick limb I felt my car jerked, then I say bows up in the air, heard cracking and squealing and then bows fell back down on the trailer. Front tie downs were torn off the trailer. People around said it all looked and sounded pretty bad.

Looks like I hit the limb with the middle section of the comptip. I have inspected everything I could and I did not see anything except for some scratches on the front of the comptip and a slight straightening of the main halyard hook at the top. The mast is straight. I put it down, then up, hoisted main and jib again and everything seems fine. Lines are all fine. All wires look fine too. The mast tang is solid and firmly attached. Bridles and their attachment to the bows look fine.

So my question is - is there anything I need to be on the look out after such a violent (and stupid) handling of my boat? Well, except for the trees I mean... Could I have damaged something that I cannot see right away but that might show later?

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Yuri
Hobie 16
Laser Vago

What made the "cracking" noise? The branch or fibreglass.

Karl,
I have no idea what cracked. I hope it was the tree. I pushed on the top of the mast when it was laying on the tramp to see if there were any cracks, but did not see anything.

_________________
Yuri
Hobie 16
Laser Vago

It takes alot of force to break a tiedown even if they were the older ones that came with the boat. Think of all the leverage you have at the end of the mast, all the kinetic energy in a 3000 pound car moving at just a few miles per hour. Say the branch hit the mast 5' down from the top. The straps are probably just forward of the mast, that's alot of leverage. Probably somewhere in the range of 10-12 times the force put on the comptip, depending on where the boat pivoted from. there's suspension and other factor cluttering up what forces went wear.

First thing I would look at would be the bow tangs where the bridle connects to the hull. They should be snug, I know I tightened them up before I sold you the boat.

Bent pins?, if the working forstay was loose and the temp forestay had tension I'd check that crabiner to make sure that came out ok. (chances are this would've been the weak link and would've broken before anything else).

Check the comptip for any dents in the fiberglass.

Pull the sails up and crank down on the downhaul. Get it about as tight as you dare. With the 6:1 you can pull it well beyond the black band on the mast. That puts a ton of strain on the comptip. I'd try doing it on a nice quiet day to hear anything cracking.


Stop hurting my boat!

You might want to check the bottom of the hulls supported by the rear rollers on the trailer. If you tore the front tie downs off of the trailer, that means a lot of weight was absorbed by those hulls. I would inspect the entire bottom section for delamination. Also the bow tangs and the front and rear crossbar connections to the hulls will have absorbed a lot of stress.

This is typically what happens when you drive into a tree with the mast up:


BTW, this was repaired (4 years ago) and the boat is still sailing.

You can see the patch on the port bow in this Onne Van Der Wal photo from the 2006 H-16 NA's:


That was a seriously mean day - 15+ kts, 8 to 10 ft swells

I would look for damage like the boat in the picture there.

_________________
Nacra 5.2 "Elsies"
Hobie 14T, "Blazin" I guess I am keeping her!

Karl, I was kinda hoping you will not see this post. Anyway I will check the areas you suggest once again and I will do the sail hoisting experiment on a quiet day.

Hobieokc, I will double check the bottom again, but I did not see anything bad there...

Mbounds, no, thank God, nothing like this happened.

I'm starting to think that I was just lucky and the fact that I tore the tie downs did help. It also helped they were somewhat worn out. Instead of holding the boat and letting the mast and all the hardware and the hulls to take the punishment, they just held up a bit and then snapped. Tree branch cracked (I hope this was it), but did not fall on the ground. I think it just swang around the mast without making a deadly damage... As I mentioned I will double check everything again.

Thanks!

_________________
Yuri
Hobie 16
Laser Vago

Yuri,
If it makes you feel any better, I've done it too

It certainly makes you more aware when you are trailering the boat with the mast up though.

_________________
James
86' Redline Hobie 16
Sail # 76909

Dude!

_________________
Sheet In...Max Out
www.fleet297.org
sailflatlands at gmail dot com

DUDE!?!

_________________
Sheet In...Max Out
www.fleet297.org
sailflatlands at gmail dot com

ok, I'm going to be a dick for a moment.

Please! In the name of all that is holy, pull your heads out of your ass'. I grew up with my old man yelling at me: "Pay attention, it might save your life some day". Things like this should NOT happen. Period! I realize stuff happens, but these types of things are very easily avoided.

It must have been a blessing in disguise when Karl through in those "crappy" tie downs with the boat. Your very lucky you didn't have new ones on there or the boat would for sure look like Matt's photo.

Yeah, stuff like this should not happen.

_________________
Nacra 5.2 "Elsies"
Hobie 14T, "Blazin" I guess I am keeping her!

James, no it does not, but since you are still sailing it gives me hope that things are not as bad as I was thinking.

Yep, this must not happen. But who would put a tree with big wide branches on the parking lot of the boat ramp!? But seriously, this is only my fault and I should have paid more attention. See it was after sunset and already dark, (for the record - I did have my head out of my ass, but it was so dark it seemed it still was there) and I was driving to the lighted part of the parking lot. Then I thought, instead of driving to the spot straight and then backing up with the trailer, I would do a wider circle and end up with the cat in the light spot. Well, that did not work. I did not even see the tree, not even mentioning any branches. Damn it!

Buzzman, I think you are right! So, everyone, get yourself a set of old worn out tie downs and use them on the parking lot while driving around with your cat!
OR how about putting on your mast those things that you can have on a rear bumper of the car (parking assistance or what is this called?).

Well it is very cold here in SC (by SC standards) so I will do all of the inspections later when temperatures get back in upper 40's.

_________________
Yuri
Hobie 16
Laser Vago