The truck and trailed boat in the grainy stoplight camera below was mine. This happened almost seven years ago now, but was a major wake-up call.
Ten minutes before this video my family and I had tested an old wooden dory I’d been refurbishing for almost two years—it was the first time we had the boat out. Happy with the results we loaded her up to make the 2-mile drive home.
Halfway home, I was t-boned in an intersection by a young driver who obviously was not paying attention to oncoming traffic and drove right into us as we went through a green light.
What you can’t see here is the flying anchor (you actually can, if you look closely at impact point on the right side of the jeep) and a giant hole about 6 inches behind where my three-year-old daughter’s head was. My 30-pound anchor slammed out the rear window and flew about 50 feet, landing under another car. Luckily for my daughter it went sideways instead of forward.
Sadly, I knew better… This was a major wake-up call for me and should be for anyone else who uses an anchor while fishing from your boat. Do not leave it unsecured in the back of your car. Make sure it’s out of your vehicle on your trailer in an anchor nest or tethered on a very stout tensile strength rope or length of chain.
A new hack I discovered is using a climbing quickdraw to secure the anchor to a tie down point. These are designed for serious dynamic loads much heavier than a 30-pound anchor. Anything is better than having it turn into a flying deadly projectile if you get in an accident.