boatme

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SkiDoc

iTrader: (4)

I was the pace boat for the second group and have a house and boat at Lake Cumberland. I have done this Poker Run for the last decade. I've got good front facing go pro video of the start to the wreck site. Here are my objective observations.

This weekend is one of the biggest, if not the biggest crowds of the year on the Lake. Boaters consider this a cant miss event. The people in our neighborhood have a giant party on the bank with lots of food, put ip tents, etc.... The weekend was originally picked to avoid busy weekends on the Lake. The weekend after Labor Day was always completely dead. The marinas were essentially done for the year here. The business people at the marinas and the few surrounding small towns are very appreciative of the huge amount of money this event brings to the local economy. It is very significant for all of the marinas on the lake.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife do a fantastic job of trying to inform all users of the lake of this event. Posters are placed at all launch ramps, in all marinas, radio spots. But they told us in the drivers meeting that there would be boaters out there who would not know this was going on or just choose to ignore their requests. They also affirmed that it is not a closed course and it is the Captains resposibility to operate their boat according to all laws. They told us to EXPECT interference not that it could happen.
It was amazing how open the Lake was for the second group. Ive got good video of this. The KDFW also tried to clear the short bank side in turns. They put alot of energy into this and they did a great job of it. The 30,000 spectators did a great job of complying with their requests. A lot of people try to pick their viewing spots to get as close as possible.
One narrow area on the route was restricted to below 60 mph
At the start no boat was supposed to pass the pace boat yet we had one boat immediately pass us then had 2 others pass us before where the KDFW wanted us to lower the flag. Its amazing some drivers cant comply with these simple rules. We've got them on video and they know who they are. There is absolutely no history of enforcement of the rules though.
There is no pattern of fly bys. Ive seen the videos but never witnessed this personally. It is not typical for this event. Most all drivers are safe and good ambassadors for us as a group. There are a few captains who are a problem. Enforcement of the existing rules laws would help.
Bottom line is that we are the "Show" that brings everyone to the lake that weekend, but actions of a few will have us teetering on being banned.

Islander_212

I was sitting just past Harmon Creek on the North Side of the Lake about 1 mile from the accident. That course was clear as I have ever seen it with a minimum of 500 yards of clear water down the center. Most years there are boats still running down the course trying to get to Harmon. Not so much this year. The KDFWR were running up and down both sides of the lake in this area to ensure spectators were back away close to shore as this is where the majority of the spectators sit. Even in the videos I have seen I have seen no more than a couple of boats that were near the center of the lake. One was the boat that crossed in front of the boats at the time of the accident (for reasons unknown to me and outright dangerous, and I believe they was the give way boat in that crossing scenario) and the one out during one of the fly by videos. The other fly by videos were where the boats were anchored no more than 200 feet from shore at the corners. The lake at a minimum is 1/2 mile wide all the way past CBM which is quite a bit further upstream of the accident site. The overhead shots I have seen from Jay for the most part show a fairly wide path down the center of the lake. For my experience I have only ran in one PR and that was the Thunder Run at LC early this Summer. It was in a 36' Flat Deck Skater with 1075's and it was a blast. We ran down the middle of the lake during the run exclusively as did the boat that PP's owner was in. I can't remember if he was driving or on the throttles.

Jupiter Sunsation

I read a few pages and took a few points away:

1. Tow boat guy had some good points and he was the boat that recovered the boat
2. Locals (mistakenly) believe these boats are all piloted by experts/professionals
3. I sensed an attitude that only the poker run participants are at risk (though a few locals do dispute that)
4. The flyby videos are not popular with most locals
5. The locals look at this event as no rules, high speed race that fills the local economy with out of town money!

PremierPOWER

I'm not sure how people can defend some of the driving in these videos. I was there last weekend as a spectator and know the traffic and water conditions that day and I've also been a participant before as well. The video where the red cat (PP?) is clearly poor judgement. You cannot argue that whatsoever whether you were there or not. The video shows enough. How would there be enough room for the large pack of boats running in the middle of the lake but not him?? He clearly turned hard port and even looked to cut off another boat running and headed directly towards the spectator boats that were NOT anywhere near the middle of the channel. They were exactly where they should have been, out of the way of the poker runners. I'm not going to say much on the other video because it doesn't show what brad and Jeff along with that other boat may have been trying to avoid when they came close to the spectator boats, although they should have slowed down. The other video withthe red cat however is the exact type of crap we don't need to be doing, especially with everyone video recording these days. With how many people were out on the lake on Saturday I surprised only 2 videos have surfaced of the wreck. I would think 20 people had to be recording as it was the fast front runners that most people come to see.

Kevin

Islander_212

Most of the people on this lake and especially for this event are not locals. The few locals that use this lake only go out during the week or when no one else is there. A lot of us that use the lake have property or houseboats down there, but very few are locals. Perhaps you were calling the folks that use the lake as their home lake the locals. That would make sense.

Jupiter Sunsation

Sorry for not being clear, my post was in reference to the link posted to a thread on lakecumberland.com and yes the locals I referred to are indeed the area residents that use the lake on a regular basis.

mmb

Keep going like we are and there will be a national water speed limit of 55mph just like driving your car on the highway.

cookee

As an outsider (from the UK) I struggle to understand how you can have strict rules on boat construction for race boats such as canopies etc and yet have unrestricted more powerful boats running in Poker Runs with no regulations at all? It seems that boats can drive though fleets of spectator boats without any penalty which from my point of view makes the whole thing lawless? If everyone is going to run flat out and race to the card stops then surely some sort of safety regulation concerning boat construction is the only thing that will save lives? Bob's idea of a pace helicopter would bring the boats down off the limit and work as well - I can't see any other workable solution or am I missing something?

Islander_212

We have pace boats that you are not supposed to pass until the flag drops when the local authorities tell them the coast is clear for departure. Those pace boats were passed on both sides well before the flag dropped. There is video evidence of this as well.