I've seen more than a few people back down on the painter. Last trip to Norman I saw a guy backdown on one and heard a loud bang and black smoke came out and the boat/cat lost power and began to float aimlessly... there were a bunch of us that had to use our dinghys to push the boat to another boat that it was likely going to hit anyways....but we had both boats put fenders out and got them positioned where they were both on the same ball for a period of time. It was quite a scene! I didn't see it but I believe the boat with power then moved to another ball. There may even be one or two people reading this that were involved in the crazy scene in May of last year.