Quit Speculating
 

As the only person who actually saw what happened and as a friend of Mike's please don't offer up your version of what happened, especially if you are in not even in the same state. This is Mike's 3rd Nordic - He is not an inexperienced boater. Since SummerObsession is so sure it's driver error, maybe you would like to come inspect the boat to confirm that - we need an "expert" to look at it. To set the record straight, the boat was not going 85 mph, it wasn't even going 60 mph. Mike was going about 35-40 mph when it happened - this is why they are OK. It did happen in a turn and the boat did not spin out. Mike and his wife are fine.

38F, did the boat come apart? What do you think happened? Sounds like not driver error. Was his previous Nordic's stepped?

Best is they are OK.

38, thanks for the input. Its nice to have some info from someone that actually knows what happened.....for once. I hope your friends are ok. Even small injuries can screw up life. This story sure sounds like a good reason to be wearing vests....always.

"Mike was going about 35-40 mph when it happened - this is why they are OK. It did happen in a turn and the boat did not spin out"

So this 2004 Nordic Flame didn't spin out at high speed as eyewitnesses have claimed, but rather it just "fell apart" and sank at 35 to 40 mph?

LOL. Well either Nordic is now making the biggest piece of **** to ever be sold as a performance boat or someone else is seriously underestimating the speed at which this Nordic was traveling.

This is getting good. I wonder if Nordic is going to come out with an opinion on what happened. I doubt that they just sit back and allow someone to claim that their boats fall apart at 35mph.

Nobody ever speculates on OSO!

Mike, its good to hear that your friends are going to be okay. Everything else has already been said a million times this season.

Boat safe kids!

38 Fountain,

Glad everyone is ok.

Care to tell us what happened?

Dean

Ruling out speculation
 

I have just returned from looking at the boat. I along with John Stivers of Unlimited Marine and John Barr of Salyers Marine thouroghly inspected the boat. It is not hard to see exactly what happened. As good as some of the above scenerios sound, that was not the case in this particular ACCIDENT. Actually, it was a post racing accident. The race was over and the boats were coming back at a slower rate of speed. Actually slower than what was reported. None the less, the boat did strike a submerged log in the water. This is highly evident by the numerous scrathes and broken strakes on the front of the boat. It not only struck the log while it was moving forward, the boat rode up on the log on the port side which tossed it over onto its starboard side and inturn allowed water to rush into the boat which ripped off the deck lid. Also when the boat tossed to the starboard side, the boat struck the log again and crushed one of its ecliptical bow rails. Nordic uses a different type of bow rail than most boats. They are ecliptical in shape which makes them very strong and ridgid. It took more than the impact of the water to bend this rail. Another tale tale sign the boat had encountered the log was that the port drive was up and the starboard drive was down. Also there were numerous scratches on the starboard side stainless steel rub rail. Water does not scratch or scuff stainless steel.
No boat is designed to come apart on impact and no boat will just turn over. I have been running a step hull design for several years as has Nordic Gary and several others of us who race and I and they can attest that these boats will turn on a dime without doing the things reported earlier in the post. The problem with all vehicles is that the back end will will swing when turned quickly as did this one. Mr. Peconge did miss the main section of the log but unfortunately, he did catch the but end of the log. This was an accident that could have happened to anyone of us. Boaters hit logs all of the time. I hit one myself on the same day as the accident but fortunately I was not running very fast nor was I in a turn when I hit it. To point a finger and say that Mr. Peconge was at fault here would be a joke. He did nothing more than most boaters have done. To point a finger and say that his boat was structurally unsound would be just as much of a joke as no vehicle can withstand the pressures that this vehicle did without breaking apart. This was an accident. It is easy for anyone to set back and say, well that wouldn't happened if.....
Despite belief by some, Lake Cumberland is big enough to race on and it is big enough to ski or fish or whatever else you want to do and it is big enough for all of these things to be going on at the same time. If a lake that is a 101 miles long and has over 1200 miles of shoreline isn't big enough, then no place is big enough. All of us have to be careful and even with that, there will still be accidents.

Disclaimer: I am not an employee of any selling dealer of Nordic nor am I an employee of Nordic Power Boats and furthermore, I don't own a Nordic Power Boat.

tnks for the input.

Now that makes sense. The boat struck a log and sank. There was just no way I was going to believe that this boat just "fell apart" after simply being put into a turn at 40 mph.

Thanks for clearing up the confusion and glad that everyone is doing well.

Nuff said. Glad everyone is going to be ok.