NEVER, EVER, EVER lower your mast over anything that you value: your car, your dog, your friends... That's just waiting for a disaster to happen. I've only been doing this for 18 years, and I know two people personally that have broken arms trying to catch a falling mast. I have seen plenty of other masts fall and not hit anyone.
Point being, when the hinge/pin/ball quits, the mast comes down, out of control and FAST. If you want to use the trailer idea, just make sure the boat is far enough away from the trailer such that when the mast is lowered, just the very top foot or so extends past the trailer mast support.
To protect the car or the mast? It it's the car, you can also take the trailer out, face it forward to the sterns so the mast support is closer and gives support in a better angle, that reduces a bit the possibility of popping out or at least reduces the distance of the fall. Though it might be worst to let the mast hit something on it's center rather than on the tip. My experience is that the risk of popping out is at a quite low angle, very similar actually to the angle given by the mast support at short distance of the sterns. That means two things for me:
- I'm not too afraid of damaging the mast because of the short fall distance.
- The chances of popping out (mine is uncaptive) are actually very high, so it's not really e very good option for me, a higher support is better or probably just drop it to the sand or to the water, I manage to make it smooth enough, poppig out included (with a safety line of course)
