sandcraft

Everybody knows Nordics crush Bajas and fountains!

capone550

Why cant you just enjoy your boat and let everyone else enjoy theirs? I guess you have the best boat made and everyone should kiss your butt cause of it right? Oh and I do believe this damage was caused by a wake. HMMMMMM. This was a sad story but shows fountains are right there with the others.

sleeper_dave

Nice of you to resurrect this post after 6 months.

I saw those pics. I also saw the big spot with the missing graphics on the side of the boat from when that boat was crashed a few weeks prior, and I noticed that the only separation of hull and deck came from the one area on a fountain where it isn't glassed together, the swim platform, and only extended a short distance forward of the actual transom before actually breaking the deck... indicating that the deck itself in that area was weaker than the hull to deck joint. I also recall reading that a little girl was killed when she was thrown out of that boat as it landed sideways, and the consensus of others in the thread was that the damage to the hull was irrelevant, even if it had held together the occupants would have been thrown out. A horrible tragedy, regardless of what kind of boat it was.

I do enjoy my boat... and I don't think i've prevented anyone else from enjoying theirs. I've merely said that there's a quality difference between different boat builders. A Baja isn't built with the same quality as a Fountain, and a Fountain isn't built with the same quality as a Nor-Tech or Outerlimits (I assume, i've never been on a Nor-Tech or Outerlimits). That's why you pay more for a Fountain than you do a Baja, and more for an Outerlimits than you do a Fountain. I could have bought a lot of other boats for what I paid for my Fountain (a relatively small sum), but I bought a Fountain for a reason, and got less boat for my money, but built better. Others may select a different boat, such as a Baja, to get more for their money, with less quality.

I don't know why everyone here seems to think that all performance boats are well-built and of the highest quality. They're not. Some are total pieces of ****.

That's the one thing that really pisses me off about this forum. If I'm looking to buy a boat, I want to know the tradeoffs in the different brands, including quality, strength of the hull, quality of the rigging, susceptibility to rot, type of materials, weight, hull performance, the whole nine yards. Everyone on this forum acts like it's a cardinal sin to speak the truth about a lower quality hull manufacturer. If i'm in the market for a new boat, I want to know what everyone thinks about a given brand... how do they hold up long term, do they have a tendency to rot, do they have a tendency to break in half, etc. Nobody on this forum seems willing to speak the truth, for fear of bringing down the wrath of the ****ty-boat owners, as I have in this thread.

MOBILEMERCMAN

I have. If your going to play hard and race hard sooner or later your going to go swimming. I have been lucky to have survived myself.
Jim

mustangjoe87

2 years back I was on a waverunner doing about 25 in a small lake and was T-boned by my now Ex girlfriend at top speed. I saw it in the corner of my eye at the last second and tryed to lean away bringing the bottom up. She hit the bottom and cracked the **** out of it glanced my leg and ejected my about 20 feet from the pwc. Needless to say when she tryed to blame it on me I told her it was over and havent spoken with her since.

socalstone

I witnessed a woman waterskiing get run over by another boat at Deep Creek Lake in MD back around 1981 or 82. The prop cut her deep across both thighs and she nearly died.

outlawinil

Maybe you should consider an inflatable for your next boat if you're going to make a habit of T-boning cruisers. They will bounce right off.

37SR

You have to turn on your lights people. My wife and I were running a 311 Formula several years back with another couple at around midnight on Grand in Oklahoma. No moon made for a very dark night. Girls on on the bench talking while the guy is in the passenger bolster and I'm driving. We are running about 40mph. I kept scanning the horizon back and forth, nothing out there, we are good. Looked back to say something to the wife and looked back - right in front of us is the V shape of water spray - brain regestered very quickly that a boat was was coming at us dead on, and a very big one! I spun the wheel as hard as I could to the right, we turned hard enough to slide the boat on the starboard side and then hooked the bottom and rolled the boat hard enough over to port to splash water back into the boat. Threw me out of the drivers bolster into the other guy, my wife was tossed across the seat and slammed into his wife. I still don't know how no one was ejected. The boat was still under power but had come completely off plane and was slugging ahead again (learned my lesson on lanyards and kill switches that night). Got the boat shut off. The girls are crying and screaming. His wife was in the worst shape - pretty bruised up back where my wife hit her. We didn't hit the other boat, but my buddy said he watched the rubrail of the other boat pass over his head - he said we were inches apart. Started looking all around us and finally see this big old tri-deck cruiser about 50 yards away - NO LIGHTS - NO RUNNING LIGHTS - NO CABIN LIGHTS - NOTHING!!!

He turns to idle over to us, and starts drunkinly slurring obsentaties at us about how we did that on purpose. I procede to instruct him on the safe operation of a lighted vessel at night. He pulls directly up to our boat, I jumped up to his deck and told him to bring his a$$ off that flying bridge so I could properly shove an anchor light high enough up his backside to make his eyes look like beacon lights.

No fight - back on our boat - off he goes - no lights. Thank god for VHF - got on it and hailed GRDA (Grand Cops), they finally find us and pull up next to us asking where the boat is, we were trailing him - told the cops he was about 200 yards in front of us - you could see we were still within his wake - of course they couldn't spot him - they light up there spot - there he was. Not sure what ever happed to him but we could still see they had him pulled over when we were a couple miles away turning into Duck Creek.

I have always worn my lanyard since and we gave up night boating unless we are in the Sea Ray lit up like a Christmas Tree!!!

sleeper_dave

Hmm... might not be a bad idea.

For the time being, though, i'm just going to try to stay off the water at night. Never know when there'll be another drunken fisherman with no lights on failing to yield right of way to me.

fountain 47 sc

I don't think fountains are built that well. After all the advertising and hype, I expected flawless construction and finish work. Underneath the bolsters and in the cabin behind the upholstery is plenty of poorly cut and loosely joined marine plywood along with wire scraps and other garbage just left behind during construction. I would have expected more from Reggie and his North Carolina boys than what I see.