Bringing my new to me boat home.

Now I'm not a new boater, this is my fifth, been boating for about 20 yrs first with my family and now just me. I purchased a 22ft Century on ebay and had to drive about an hour to go get it. I arrive at his house, check everything over hook up, double check everything again and I'm off. Everything is going well for the first 20 minutes or so until I have to stop at a traffic light in a small town. I'm the first at the light and when it turns green I take off, only to hear a "POP, n then zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" I look in my mirror only to watch my boat rolling backwards off the trailer. Roled back around 3-4 ft, Luckily it had the safety chain on it ( which by the way is waaaaayyyyyyy to long.) With my knees knocking I pull into a BK, nurse it into the parking lot, crank things back up again, and decide its time to grab a bite to eat ( I'm not hungry mind you) must've sat there for an hour shaking. After I investigated the only conclusion that I could come to was that the safety lock looked like it was engaged, but it was quite all the way. I haven't had a problem since. Oh well, live and learn.

Re: Bringing my new to me boat home.

Did you change your shorts?

Re: Bringing my new to me boat home.

It sounds like you didn't have the transom strapped??

Re: Bringing my new to me boat home.

first thing I thought of too was no transom straps? Last summer my 70+ yo neighbor wants me to tow his boat to the river to see if the mechanic did his job. We get to the ramp and I stop to get out and he asks me why. I told him to take off the transom straps. He says" oh I don't put those on unless I am going aways" Total lunacy. Not only can they slide back, but they can bounce off too. Oh well to each his own.

Re: Bringing my new to me boat home.

It didn't have transom straps, but it did have a strap over the topsides. This as I found out allows the boat quite a bit of freedom on the trailer. The trailer is a shorelander roller trailer and the angle from the tiedowns in the back to the tiedowns on the trailer is really bad. I'm just happy I don't trailer it very often. This boat is small and light compared to my last sea ray (24ft about 7500lbs on the trailer with gear and all). I've never had a problem towing a boat, but theres something about the way this one tows that just gives me that insecure feeling.