TeamSaris

Being the setup guy that he was, I think hed dig hearing how other boats react.

Rip buddy

30ctsutphen

I had been following the build thread from time to time. Don seemed to me like such a good guy who really enjoyed this sport.

I think he would have showed people what happened to his boat in the accident had he been around now, so that others could learn from it.

Most of us Gearheads are like that. He was a brother to all of us in the performance boating hobby, although I never knew him at all.

He has my respect for chasing his dream. He also will have my prayers as will his family.
He was very personable online and I felt like I knew him from readiing his posts. I noticed many of you have posted about the ITS and although I dont want to speculate on anything, I did want to post this excerpt from the build thread for you guys.

(There was a small oil leak which was dealt with. And the ITS needs to be bleed, you have to turn is slowly to the left to keep it straight. So they only did one short blast to 5600 or so)

I thought it might be important info to you guys.
God Bless

34disturbed

im sure many would argue though and say no way!my system is tight and ive never experienced anything like that on my 27 or 29', to few instances! and dont think its a worry. honestly not many people really asked to know in depth before now what happened.im sure it wasnt to be ignorant or rude but maybe out of respect and whatnot figured it was better off left alone! well thats how ive always felt about speaking on the forum about something like this, u feel like an outsider looking in for the same reasons of rumors and junk like that! my heart goes out to the driver ofDons boat who was probably a great friend and will have a tuff time ahead dealing with the situation.

34disturbed

what type of conversion kit is available to hook an imco upper to the Its? are the rams merc or imco? thats what don had if im not mistaken.

jdub

iTrader: (1)

I think he went with the Imco SCX upper which required a helmet change. The rams remained merc......

Philm

Thank you all for contributing as well. Don was my friend, I never got the chance to meet him in person but I spent hours on the phone with him and we exchanged hundreds of emails about his project, my boat, and pretty much everyone elses boats as well. He would certainly be engaged in this discussion if it had been one of us.

I dislike that we even have to discuss it at all, because that only means that someone paid the price, in this case it was Don. Perhaps this discussion should have been started previously, asking people their honest, no bull**** assessments about the handling of their boats, not just relying on what are usually biased opinions based on brand loyalty. We are all guilty of it.

Now, I have an ITS box as well, and have never had any issues with it. the steering is tight and has never worked less than perfect. The only time I ever had a steering issue at all was when i threw a power steering belt. I have been in some seriously snotty conditions with my boat, the worst being when i was terribly inexperienced for them, during the OPA race in Ocean City of 2009, when i took the boat down the coast from Indian River, DE in true 3-5' seas. Even then, the boat never did anything unexpected, and we were running a solid 50+mph the whole trip.

At this time, I do not believe it to be driver error, the situation just sounds too unusual for this to be plausible in my mind. Of course, this is just my opinion and the truth could come out a completely different way. I am not giving the driver the benefit of the doubt, I am giving the boat the benefit of the doubt. They just dont react like that at those speeds, based on my experience.

Hopefully we will get a definite answer to these questions. I know that my gf and I, as well as passengers on my boat, will wear lifejackets from now on. It may not have saved his life, but it just might have helped.

Mastercraft240

I've never felt anything "unusual" in the kryptonite unless I forcefully tried to do something, such as extreme negative trim on a turn. The boat has always been predictable and rock solid at any speed I've taken it to. But, as with any single step small v-bottom, you have to be careful! Aggressive step + light boat + pad + windy will never be ideal conditions to make a speed run. Sometimes if it's real windy out and hitting directly on the port side of the boat, I'll have to counterbalance my starboard side tab down to 5 or 6.

Either way, Don had that boat up to 116? or some crazy number. I can't imagine the boat hooking by driver failure at 80??? Like you phil, I've had many people take my boat up to 80 without issue. Damn, even my 15year old cousin, who's a girl mind you, drove 82. It sounds like the ITS, but im sure we'll have a definitive answer soon.

Sydwayz

iTrader: (1)

Just a thought: There is an unrelated thread in the GD about a guy who had his 0-ring blow out on his sea strainer due to too much water pressure. It sprayed water all over the belt(s) and adversely affected the steering causing a rapid turn.

Tom A.

My Kryptonite was the same way but it was a driver's boat above 80mph. It almost bit me once trying to get a top speed mph or two out of it with aggressive trim, it made it real squirrely. The boat skipped off a boat wake and chine walked so bad, my friend running next to me saw the whole bottom of my boat! I can only imagine what one is like at 100+. I saw a best of 86 with my set up.
My boat ran the best with the tabs just touching the water and the drive trimmed out slightly. When turning I always tried to slow first if needed, bring the tabs up if I was dragging them in a following sea, and then turn leaving the drive trimmed (never slowing once I started turning). I actually would accelerate slightly through the turn to make sure the stern stays planted.

Tom A.

The boat came back from authorities on Thursday. They did find a broken powersteering pump belt laying in the bilge. It has been suggested that this may have played a part........1200h.p, Torque steer, 5 blade,....etc.etc. The guy who brought the boat to rest said the steering was real tuff. I checked all the hydro rams and they all look fine. I was actually expecting the boat to look pretty beat up. To my surprise the boat doesn't even have a mark on it.
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From the GD section.