Hey Steve,

...but, perhaps if I had witnessed the grounding personally, I wouldn't be... (grin) I've been lucky, and have only touched granite once in Maine, it was while maneuvering at dead slow in a tight anchorage. Just a glancing blow, but it was still pretty "shocking, a whole different thing than touching bottom even in hard sand in a place like the Bahamas... The violence and forces exerted hitting a rock ledge at speed probably are pretty difficult to imagine...

Our old friend Jeff H weighs in with his usual thorough and thoughtful analysis over on Sailnet, though he seems a bit mystified as to the cause of the dismasting, as well:

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/1071663-post52.html

Last winter, the 178' Perini Navi PARSIFAL III ran over the top of Carrot Shoal in the BVIs, shearing off several feet of coral and rock, and leaving 30+ tons of their lead ballast behind in the process, but without suffering the loss of the rig... Amazingly, it appears that the captain hoped no one would ever notice such massive bits of keel sitting on top of one of the more popular dive sites in the islands, apparently never officially reporting the grounding, and it wasn't until the boat was hauled in St Thomas for repairs, that folks began to put 2 and 2 together... (grin)

http://kerryhucul.com/2013/03/15/yacht-grounding-on-carrot-shoal-british-virgin-islands/

If I were the skipper of that yacht, I'd think twice about deploying that stoopid Barefoot Dining Transom Platform from now on in the BVIs... I can just picture one of the local dive boats giving them a close pass astern, on a half-plane, throwing them as large a wake as possible... Now, THAT would be fun to see... (grin)

best regards,

Jon