Yellow Pages
A boat fell off its trailer Wednesday afternoon about half a mile outside of Anacortes on Highway 20, causing delays during busy late afternoon traffic.
The boat and the truck towing it ended up in the ditch on the side of the road while the trailer flipped upside-down, blocking the eastbound right lane.
Either there was too much weight on the back or the front according to witnesses driving behind the boat, said Louise Melvin, owner of Jim’s Towing, which removed the trailer.
The truck was going about 40 mph when the boat began to sway back and forth, causing the truck to sway, jackknife and hit the boat, said Anacortes Police Detective Sgt. John Small.
No one was injured in the incident and no other vehicles were involved, Small said.
The call came into the department at 4:01 p.m. and the boat was removed at about 6:45 p.m. Small said. Matt Hansen of Jim’s Towing pulled the truck, which was facing the other way, out of the ditch and pulled the trailer off the road.
Mount Vernon Towing brought in a crane to lift the boat onto a boat transporter owned by Granville Marine, which hauled it to its yard in Anacortes.
“It looked like it tried too be a plow,” said Janet Sutton of Granville Marine. The propeller and back end was caked with mud from the ditch.
A surveyor has not been out to inspect the damage to the boat yet, but Sutton said from their experience the boat is totaled.
The owner of the boat was towing it home to Tacoma at the time of the accident. He was not cited, Small said.
The 28-foot sport cruiser retails for about $137,000.
