Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

Very Sad!:(

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

such a sad story, I can't imagine what the father and the young girl must be going through, my heart goes out to them.

Since the boat had just been purchased and it was older I wonder if a survey had been done

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

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Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

First let me say this is an awful thing very very sad, but look at the way the boat is supported in the before picture and look where it broke in the after. I'm no structural engineer but the break looks like it occured right at the point where the supports end:mad:

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

My thoughts and prayers go out to those involved and their families. God Bless.

DK

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

Very sad :(

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

Sonic, I wouldn't look at this as a cause. There's as much support there as on most boat lifts and trailers.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

Very sad indeed.
Thought and prayers to the families.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

Sonic, I am not looking to start any kind of debate on a terrible issue like this but to me it appears to have failed much further foward of the point you are reffering to. It almost looks like it snapped right at the first bulkhead by the registration #s.
This is a terrible accident and I don't mean any disrespect to anyone so I won't speculate on anything else.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

boat was stuffed and deck peeled back........

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

I have no intention of starting a debate, out of respect for all involved.
Just an observation that there is no bow stop as on a trailer, I apologize to anyone who felt my comment was out of line

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

It could have been anything structual or mechanical. I think the video that was posted here with the black hull, "Quiet Riot" showed how fast little things become big crashes.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

Horrible Horrible News...my Thoughts And Prayers Go Out To The Families Involved...

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

This is certainly a sad occurrence- especially that the victims were so young. While trying to be respectful to the victims and their families, I think these discussions need to happen. Alot of times the driver receives the sole blame- and often justifibly so. In others, it's possible that the equipment is the source of trouble.

After looking at several of the pictures, it strikes me that there was an exceptionally clean separation of the deck from the hull. In the one photo, it appears like a couple of "tabs" that were at an angle, between the deck & hull, still attached to the hull.

I know nothing of how this brand of boat is constructed. I do know that there are many different brands and just as many levels of construction quality. I hope people realize what level of construction they own and treat it accordingly. I fear that's not the case. They all look fast, some aren't as capable as others. One comment I read concerned me- that the driver was doing circles and jumping his own wake. Maybe that's so and maybe he was doing it safely and well away from others. Even so, these boats are made for straight-line performance. They're not Ski-Nautiques that are engineered to turn on a dime. I know first-hand- I just about broke an overbuilt raceboat hull in half behind the bolsters doing just this very thing.

In the end, I think it's important that people come to terms with the capabilities and limitations of the boats that they own as well as understanding long-term and rough-use fatigue issues. As they continue to get lighter as builders look for more and more speed, I expect this will become a more common occurrence.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

I agree with sunkin..this is a tragedy for those involved, there friends and loved ones. I think I read that he had gotten the boat recently, so I do not know his experience level. It has been mentioned that it was a pretty calm day, the boat was a 33' and from the ad, had 496's, it wasnt slow but it wasnt all that fast with those motors. It was mentioned that one of the survivors stated the driver said to hold on because of a wave, he made the first wave and apperantly stuffed the second. It has also been said he may have been doing figure '8's and jumping his own wake..in which case he couldnt have been going all that fast either. Point is the boat broke up, structuraly it failed and people were hurt/killed. mind you Im not trying to blame the boat. I am not tryingto place blame anywhere. But I think its important to figure out exactly where, how . and more importantly WHY the boat broke up so this does not happen again. so that no one else is injured or killed. this was a good size popular boat with conservative power and a non stepped hull on a calm day and with the hull and motor size should have been a rather forgiving ride.
I mean no disprect by bringing this up, but I feel the best way we can honor the dead is to learn from there tragedy and protect the living. My condolences to the family , friends and loved ones.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

Very Sad, sincere thoughts for all. Tracy

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

I agree- we can do it here or start a new thread but I would like to know why this boat broke up as well....

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

Prayers to the family and everyone involved

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

As a former power play worker and Captain I have Personally stuffed at over 75 mph in ten foot gulfstream waves and filled the cockpit to my waste. Restarted the 502's and punched it right back up on top granted the woman in the rear seat that would not hold on slipped and broke her ankle but the only damage the boat took was the forward hatch bent when the deck flexed as it was designed to do to deflect impact stress totally bonded hull to deck and stringers vinylester boats that are by far the finest ever built . The reason it broke is there was not enough water under it the bottom of the ocean at 70mph plus down ward impact is the reason for this tragedy. May we all learn from these mistakes

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

Interesting theory. I remember the Showtime Skater stuffing in Sarasota and deflecting off the bottom. Totally removed the paint from the sponsons......

Scared the hell out of the team.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

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...

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

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.
:(

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

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.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

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

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

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

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

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?"

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

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

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

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.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

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.:(

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

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!

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

Very sad situation.Condolences to the family.:(


I would think most V hulls in a bad/fast stuff would fail or atleast show some damage?

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

It depends on the hull. I've seen Cig 35's thay have been stuffed hard- one at least 3 times I know of- and no damage at all. I stuffed my Apache on lake Michigan and thought I'd broken it in half- not a nick on it. I saw Rocky's 38 Cobra and it just had 8' of the nose snapped off. Like a giant pinched it off. We've also all see the videos of boats that blew into splinters. It depends about 90% on the boat's construction.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

So what you are saying is the boat stuffed and hit the bottom on the Ocean? That might be true because they were in shallow type of water. Does the report indicated the water depth at the crash site?

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

I heard they were well offshore, over a mile. Plenty of water there.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

I agree with the earlier post on a "stuff"...Driving around on smooth water jumping your own boat wake can supprise oneself.
I would like to see where the tabs and drives where set at when they pulled it out of the water.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

Sad indeed:(
I can say that I saw a fountain stuff and hit the bottom. I think it was around 1996 in Key West. A Fountain called "Heart Beat" (I believe B class) stuffed in roughly 15-18' of water. The impact with the ocean floor left very similar damage.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

Water depth was estimated at 10 to 15 ft by someone who was on the scene.
BTB

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

More bad news.
The body of a 20-year-old Naples man was pulled from the waters off Marco Island around 1:30 this afternoon, officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

Rescuers found James Molter less than three miles from the Marco Pass where a boat he was riding in with his mother, sister and future brother-in-law crashed Saturday, killing all of them. His younger sister Jennifer, 16, was hurt in the accident. She was treated and released from Naples Community Hospital.

Investigators still don't know what caused the wreck.

All five passengers were sitting close together with Jennifer farthest from the impact, said FWC Capt. Jayson Horadam.

It's believed Jennifer was ejected over the top of the debris field on impact, he said.

Rescuers also found a 3-foot portion of the 32-foot Powerplay boat's bow section.

Collier County Sheriff's divers pulled James Molter's body from the water.

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

:( sad

Re: Boat Crash off Marco Island Today
 

Here is the entrance to the river. I can't tell the distance, but it gives an idea of depths right outside.

http://www.marcoriver.com/maps/chart1_mrm.jpg