marylandmark

I am not saying what you are saying is not true by any means but wondering where you are getting this info from?


Did the boat in the Key West race split the same way/place or ____ and why did it do so?

Trying to learn and understand but flame away if anyone feels better doing so...

88Fount33

Am I reading you correctly? You say that the boat hit the bottom and broke because it was not deep enough where this happened?

I was out at Upper Captiva on Saturday, strong breeze, and 2 to 3 foot occasional swell with 1 to 2 wind driven on top. Crusier wakes much bigger. Came back behind Captiva to anchor, stayed there until 5:00 pm, wind had dropped by that time. But it wasn't "Flat" as some would say, where I was. Condolences to the family.

Chris Sunkin

I think we'd be best off leaving thge conclusions as to why this happened to on-site experts. There are lots of possibilities and most likely none of them will be overlooked. I'm pretty sure none of us armchair quarterbacks can tell from the photos with any level of certainty.

BROWNIE

I thought that the phrase "The water came up to my waste" is one of the best accidental truths that I have ever heard.........

sakoutis3

Does anybody know the average depth of the water in that area? Maybe have a chart and look?

phragle

iTrader: (3)

I will have to say I agree and disagree..if that makes any sense, agree that the experts will figure it out, as for the fix if there is one, discussion will be needed..not just from the experts but from everyone willing to throw 2 cents in... I have been involved in many different things over the years and have seen several instances of an outsider coming in, thiniing completely out of the box so to speak and comming up with something that leaves all the pro's scratching there head and going " damn, why didnt we think of that?"

Wobble

An unlikely one IMO, 3' deep x 6' wide x 8' long = just under 9000lbs weight of water

tommymonza

That is a very shallow area with a lot of shoals that constantly change.If there was only five feet of water where he was running and he jumped over the first wave and almost cleared the second wave and landed in the 2nd trough nose down, He could have logically landed in two feet of water.If he was making fiure eights so that he had some waves to come back on and jump, those waves can be very steep and confused.I used to do this a bunch when i was a kid when it was calm out. I was out boating that day and it was blowing about ten out of the southwest with a small short swell of 1 to 2's running from the south leftover from the day before.

Tall Man

I'm new to this site but this tragedy hits close to home. I had a Powerplay before and really loved the boat. I used to jump waves with it all the time. I never once felt I was pushing the boat anywhere near its limits. However, how would I really now that?? All I really know was that the boat didn't break, but I had no idea how close I came. For all I know I could have been very close to a structural failure.

My question is in reference to what Sunkin brought up - fatigue. Every boat has a "life", a point when the fiberglass has had its day. How can an owner, or a purchaser, really know when a hull's life is pretty much over? I've always heard that hulls have a usable life span and that all boats fatigue through use and time, but how do you know when the fatigue has reached the danger point? Is there a hull test? Perhaps a "memory" test that can be done on the glass that can give some kind of an indication?

I would think a 1994 33 Powerplay's life would be nowhere near "up" at this point, even if it was used 100hrs per year.

The aviation industry requires pilots keep a running lof of the "total time" the plane has been in the air. Each airplane's frame has a limit by the manufacturer as to the number of flying hours it can fly before its usable life is over. In the boating industry we have no such warning indicator for our hulls. You can pound on the hull with your fist and try and get a feel for how it's aging, but all you may notice is that it doesn't quite feel as tight as it did 2 years ago. But how reliable is that? Not very, I wouldn't think.

I, like everyone esle, don't want to speculate or step on anyone's toes here either. I have no idea why this boat broker apart but I will be follwoing this investigation closely to see what they uncover. To me, this incedent has brought up what I believe to be a very important question. That is, How do those of us who own older boats, with a lot of hours racked on them, effecteily determine when the hull might be unsafe and should be retired?

I feel very sad for those who lost thier lives and my condolences go out to thier family and friends.

BROWNIE

I was an expert witness on two of the stuff fatalities in Key West. It does not require hitting the bottom, or 'break on the dotted line' or anything else to break into a million pieces. When I was engineer at Magnum, Mike Whitmire raced a 27 Magnum to Islamorada, down Hawk's Channel, on a day when you could have water skied 100 mph. In the middle of the race, in smooth water, in front of a dozen competitors, the bow broke off and landed in the cockpit!