Offshoreonly.com - Kook flipped boat?

Ike -
You've taken a lot of hacks for your posts. I was miffed also when I read them. You GOTTA be sure to make it clear that you are only reporting what you have HEARD, and not making judgements. I think that is exactly what you were doing, but your posts still sounded like they contained criticism.

In '92 I was testing my boat after even more cylinder porting and milling some more off the heads. It was a 16' padvee closed-bow runabout sporting a 2.4 fingerported Merc with a 225hp front half and one-piece heads. Boat including motor, battery, and fuel, plus myself, a helmet, vest, and four 45# tractor wheel weights scaled at just under 1,640 lbs. The motor on race gas and 185 psi cranking compression made somewhere near 270hp. There was a local sanctioned dragrace the upcoming weekend. I was making runs and stopping to read the plugs and piston crowns after each pass (in the water). I had been out there an hour or so.

A Metro cop pulled up to the ramp (the ramp is on a jetty that sticks out close to the channel). He waved me over. I pulled over to him and he asked me to step out of the boat. I was not real sure what he was up to, and asked him what was up. He pulled his gun on me and told me that I was under arrest and that I had ten seconds to slowly climb out of the boat and onto the shore with both of my hands in clear view.

I told him to calm down, that I would do exactly as he requested, but that I had prefer he holstered his weapon. He said that he would NOT, but that he would back away a few paces for my comfort. I told him that I wished for him to explain what the trouble was as I was coming out. He told me that he would explain as soon as he had me "secured". As I climbed out in the knee-deep shallow water (no, this is not at a ramp dock), I heard some folks cheering over at the nearby sand beach.

As I stood in the water, I asked him what I was supposed to do with the boat. He said that he could care less what I did with it since it was going to the impound anyhow. I told him that I would certainly appreciate it if he would allow me to trailer the boat (under his supervision and cocked 9mm) and he laughed. He said that I should pull the boat on the rocks and that impound would worry about trailering it. He did allow me to slowly walk the boat 10 yards away to a tire to beach it onto.

I allowed this turd to handcuff me and then asked for an explanation. He proudly told me that he was holding me for the Tn Wildlife & Resources Agency (who has jurisdiction on our lake) who would be arresting me for reckless operation of a motor vehicle and reckless endangerment and hopefully, assault with a vehicle. I was stupefied. He told me that the citizens who had been swimming at the beach area were terrified for their lives and that I had been operating the boat like a madman, completely out of control and that they had thought many times that I was going to run up the beach and kill them all. He also said that I had been seen passed out several times lying over the motor and that he had a breathalyzer truck on the way and that they were also equipped to draw blood which he intended to send to the labs to see what I was "on".

The only thing that kept me from collapsing with disbelief was that I knew the three TWRA rangers that handled this area of the lake. They knew me and knew my boating and racing history. I felt some form of hope.

The drug truck arrived before the TWRA and I happily blew a 0.000 for them. I told him I was NOT refusing the blood test, but insisted that we wait until the TWRA arrived to witness the procedure, which they agreed upon.

TWRA arrived about an hour after this debacle began. I did, in fact, know the officer/ranger. He listened calmly to the policeman, asked me my version (which I relayed as above) and then told the policeman that there was no need for a blood test. He then told the policeman that he was sorry that he had been troubled by this call since he found no cause for any charges to be brought against me. The policeman was infuriated, facing losing his collar of public enemy #1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Reluctantly he uncuffed me. He did give me a parking ticket because I had parked my truck and trailer across four spaces (the spaces were perpendicular to the ramp I was using and the parking lot was virtually empty on this Wednesday afternoon).

Point is, reports of "dangerous or reckless operation" are subjective and can be wildly exaggerated by those not familiar with high performance.

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KOOK -

I am incredibly relieved to hear that you are undamaged. Your friend is in my prayers and I hope desperately that he recovers completely.

Mike