Cautionary tale - got my hair parted this weekend...

...when the bow eye snapped under load and I had my face nice and close to my ATV winch. Should have seen this coming a mile away since the old, cast bow fitting on our sailboat looked to me both kind of wimpy and, well, old. I was trying to reposition the boat on a set of marine rail tracks and it failed unexpectedly when I applied the juice to the winch.

There was a SNAP! ZING! WHOOSH! as the cable and broken fitting grazed my head on the way by. Another two inches and I'd have lost an eye. This was closely followed by the boat clattering back down the rails uncontrollably and into the water. I shudder to think what would have happened to anyone standing behind it (although I have at least half a brain firing usually and don't allow anyone near the thing when moving boats. Still, my kid, neighbour's kids - the place is lousy with kids around the waterfront usually.) This happened 48 hours ago and I'm still a little freaked out.

So...just a reminder that some of the loads we deal with on a daily basis when boating are extremely dangerous. I know I was in a hurry, impatient, and unsafe. Got lucky when I had no right to be. Take care everyone!

Re: Cautionary tale - got my hair parted this weekend...

wow man, glad yer alright. when i was a youngster dad was reeling the home made 20' pontoon boat we had up on shore to be blocked up for the winter. we had a pulley go. snap, just like a rifle shot. the pulley hit the tree we had the winch hooked too. took a big ol chunk out of the tree. if it would have been dad, i'm sure he'd have been dead. it was that ballistic. if that's the right word. again. glad yer alright. ya got lucky. so did my dad. we used much bigger pulleys after that...

Re: Cautionary tale - got my hair parted this weekend...

OUCH!!!


Remember, "SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY!!!!!




DO NOT LOSE AN EYE, that may be the next olympic demenstratoin event!

Re: Cautionary tale - got my hair parted this weekend...

I think boaters including me underestimate the forces going on in the winching process.

I posted previsously, I just ahd a winch cable snap, but I was kinda expecting it, so I had the boat tied off with a bow line on the winch stand. Should be standard procedure.

I also do not stand in the line of the cable. That's easier said than remembered.

Glad you are OK

Re: Cautionary tale - got my hair parted this weekend...

glad your ok bud.....

i got a question for ya.......did the eye break?...or did it come out of the hull ....post pics?

we were dry winching a 30 footer just under 10,000 lbs on to a trailer.....the bunks on the trailer were kinda in a u shape.....i tried to tell the gent in charge of the operation that the angle was incorrect.....and we were at the point that we were winching down (as the bow eye was higher than the winch) in stead of winching forward. (he has 40 years in the business and just waved off what i said). i stood back and told everybody the cable was going to snap....he went off saying how strong the cables were yadda yadda and SNAP......the guy who was actually doing the winching turned around and looked at me with a "thank you" in his eyes ....if he wasnt standing back....he would have got the cable in his face.

even a simple thing like winching a boat on a trailer, can be a serious matter.....make sure the cable is in good shape...and stand so your body is as clear as you can be....do what ever you can to minimize the consequences of an unexpected failure

Re: Cautionary tale - got my hair parted this weekend...

oops! said:

.......did the eye break?...or did it come out of the hull ....post pics?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the well wishes gents. As for the eye - it snapped right in two. One half stayed with the boat, the other...well, probably in orbit somewhere, which is better than buried in my head.

No pic now but I can get one. I doubt the boat weights more than 500 pounds (although I suspect some waterlogged foam is contributing nicely...). That was a contributing factor in my carelessness. Iddy biddy boat - what could go wrong...

It's also a shame because there is no way the piece is replaceable (40 year old boat) unless I cannabalize another similar boat and they are pretty rare. Any I do see for sale are very servicable and worth fixing up, not poaching for parts. I'm just going to file down the rough edges I guess and fit a proper dedicated bow eye with nice big back plates. The fitting that broke was fastened to the deck right at the bow and incorporated three attaching points - rearmost for the foresail foot, middle for the forestay and front, now defunct, for towing, winching, etc.