Dismasted!!

[bottleinamessage]

Yesterday while attempting to transit through the Alligator River Swing Bridge, a sailboat was dismasted. Fortunately there were no injuries to the crew and the bridge was still operational.

[Vasco]

I wonder how that happened. The approaches to that bridge can be seen for over a mile and the bridge tenders are usually very alert. There is little traffic over this bridge so there's no real hurry. Really strange.

[bottleinamessage]

It's hard to understand why someone would attempt it. It's a pretty narrow passage through and a gust of wind could bring you to grief.

[camaraderie]

That is really strange. Never heard of that happening there before. We had a Bene47 get dismasted coming up the west side of Roanoke Island at the 47' bridge under spinnaker!
It is the EAST side of Roanoke island that has the clearance and is the designated alternate ICW route to the Alligator River.

[Catamount]

Originally Posted by bottleinamessage

Yesterday while attempting to transit through the Alligator River Swing Bridge, a sailboat was dismasted. Fortunately there were no injuries to the crew and the bridge was still operational.

Some details about the incident, from the boat involved, are available here:

http://ssca.org/DiscBoard/viewtopic.php?t=7141