Now was I suppose to trim in or out on these new twin steps?
 

http://adcache.boattraderonline.com/6/9/4/70012494.htm

I'd love to hear the story behind this one.

"2004 Fountain Lightning, 38' Insurance Salvage, This vessel flipped while turning, this caused damage to the hull especially in the stern area. The 38' Lightning integrates Generation III Super Ventilated Positive Lift. A hull design, tuned to pad keel, notched transom, improved air induction systems. Plush, leather-touch cabin seating stainless steel hardware and top-notch instrumentation comes standard with a color-coordinated dash, throttles bezels and wheel. The following is a list of specs for a new 2004 lightning .."

dont look like a good deal:confused:

2nd one I know of that did that..this guy was doing power turns at 60 plus w/trim down all the way...also a 04'

This looks very ugly. How did the boaters fare injury wise? Hard to imagine the boat self distructing that way just because the tabs were down. How hard did they turn the wheel and why were the tabs all the way down at that speed? Seriuosly do you have more info?

I don't think the tabs had much if anything to do with the accident. These new twin-step hulls with the bigger steps are much faster than their older counterparts but much less stable in turns. If you don't have the drives trimmed properly the hull can lose it's center of gravity in a hard turn resulting in the boat swapping ends.

When this happens momentum carries the boat in the same direction but with the ass-end leading the way. The swim platform digs into the water and over she goes - flips. That's what tears off the swim platform and ejects the occupants into the drink for an unplanned swim.

Nasty business. It appears the salespeople aren't giving enough instruction on how to trim and turn these boats. And it seems to me that most of the time the boat in question is a 38 Lightning.

Not another one man....

I dunno, I thought the Reggie video with purchase was a pretty good teach.
One would assume that a Fountain is not a first time boater's purchase, but, stranger things happen.

I was running over 75 last weekend dusting a 292 Formula. Well the bridge was coming up quick & I made a nice sweeping turn at about 68, trimmed at @ 3.
I thought "here we go" but my Fountain stayed true & it was a beautiful thing.

I am thinking these guys are doing "Mastercraft spins" in an offshore boat or something. Has to be pretty violent to send the boat into a spin I would think. I can't imagine these steps to act like high heels on ice.

Could it be they had the boats trimmed too high???? Notice the warning at the bottom of the performance report. These super ventilated hulls can't be that unstable. No one in their right mind would buy them if that were the case. I asked Reggie how the 42' turned. He answered it turns fine. I then asked him the question if I'm running 80 and want to turn what do I do. He said tighten it up a bit and turn. Notice the trim settings on the performance sheet below. It looks like 90% of the time you will be running the boat at neutral aka 3. I wish some real facts would surface about these accidents so we knew what really happened.
Dan

That didn't work! The drive settings are all set at 3 except WOT which is 4.2. The Tab setting is set at 3 except for WOT which is set at 2. Notice the warning at the bottom. This is a test sheet from a new 42 Lightning.
Dan

here is a better shot of the boat w/the drives down the people were not hurt bad (banged up) this boat had 5-6 hrs on it the owner traded his 29 single fever for it...

Yea I think the boats are fine if they are trimmed properly, but there are apparently a few owners out there who don't know how.

It appears that the drives on the above boat were trimmed all the way down/in - and my understanding is doing that is a big No-No on these new hulls when you are doing a power turn.

It really doesn't matter how many boats you have driven before, these ventilated hulls need to be treated differently. If I owned one I'd be picking the brains of Fountain to find out exactly what you should and shouldn't do in one of these bad boys.