Hilarious!
 

True Dat!
Let's see......, new hull, new power, guess at a X dimension, guess at tab placement/position, trying to go faster than any other single I/O offshore boat, uhhhmmm, what'd I miss :helmet:
Been there done that and I'm a broke ass hill billy.

The indicator cables/actuators were toast when I re-rigged my twin O/B 24' Sonic and it is spooky w/o them. I have 7 yrs seat time in an identical rig w/Bennett tabs and could make that thing dance in rough and smooth. My butt puckers every time I piddle w/a button w/these :cartman:
Short running length, high power (approx 550 for me), elevated X dimension, who knows on trim angle, etc, etc.

Every one is OK and corrections will be made.
Personally, I am waiting on accurate #'s from test session #2 ;)

I've had a tab go down when a passenger unknowingly depressed the button in my 33. Very scary feeling, I thought we were going over and might've if we hit a wave wrong. It can happen in lil boats or big. I'll never drive a boat without indicators. I don't think its safe IMO

Sounds like these led indicators are junk.

You are right! Wrong use of the tabs can be very scary. I guess I was just defending the guy who said that you should be able to drive a smaller single by the feel of the boat. You have to be careful with the tabs in my boat and use small adjustments at a time. The tab thing seems to have been blown out of proportion in this thread anyway. Indicators would be a convenience but the feel of the boat comes first. This is such a bad-as s little boat. I hope it was just being pushed beyond it's limits during testing. By the fact that no one was seriously hurt and the boat suffered minimal damage it must have flipped at a fairly slow speed. I'm pretty sure that the folks at OL will get to the bottom of it. Glad no one was injured bad.

Sorry to jump on you earlier, I just reacted. There's so many people on the board that jump to conclusions before they know the whole story it just gets on me sometimes. Water being what it is and the same with boats, especially boats that are new to the market, it's hard to apply one set of circumstances to another. The folks at OL seem to be at the top of the game and I'm sure they'll get this nailed in short order.

Thanks man. I appreciate that. Yes, the folks at OL will get it sorted out.

Put a lid on it and do all your R&D at the factory at WOT. Expect to have spin outs and possable flips while testing. You are setting up a 105 MPH plus boat that you plan on selling to the public. Yes the cost is high to do this but no one has ever built a 105 MPH pleasure vee at 29' with 600 HP. Just a thought for the future as a starting point for manufactures building high speed pleasure boats.
Randy

Randy knows this from running Kryptonites like I did.
A light 29' single running 80+ is a handful. Add another 20mph and it must be a pretty awesome,scary ride.
I used to run the tabs even with the bottom of the boat or slightly down on a following sea to keep the nose flying level. I had a couple times where a diagonal wave would send me slightly off on the launch and the boat would land to one side. With the tabs dragging, it can "correct" you pretty quick. Coming from a 22' Donzi classic to the Kryptonite, I was used to this stuff but it might play differently if I went back to it now from my 38.

We have no tab indicators on our 48 Sunseeker, in fact the tab buttons are marked "bow down" so you push the button on the port to activate the starboard tab. All by feel.

I would think not having an indicator would be a better situation than having one that was giving you inaccurate information

what do you have for tabs????

glad to see everyone is ok, theres a big different in running a boat with lil tabs and 380 k planes. I've run all 3 in my 24. the lil ones use to break off lol. I'm running the 380s on the 28footer. there great as long as you know where they are. I would stick with cables. good luck Mike.

Dual ram Bennetts.

How much "feel" do you have for the tabs on a multi stepped hull in a turn? Maybe tab was being used while turning and wasn't where the indicator said? Just a thought I know going straight it's obvious when a tab is dragging

x2

There is where the difference in your opinion and your experiences will be drastically different than this 29O/L, I too have twin ram bennets and mine I have even modified by making relacement tabs from stainless that are 22" long. Even with mine legthened I can only feel them making boat handle slightly different, it does drag my boat when they are buried BUT I could drive there and boat wouldn't trip on a wave or anything real crazy. On the other hand I have driven a boat about the size of mine with the giant race ones, holy SHIIT, with them buried it felt like the boat was going to bury the bow and go under water and if they weren't even it was dangerous to drive , my guess would be they put some pretty big tabs on that boat to make it act longer/run stable and it is critical to have the tabs in the right position, Smitty

Not to mention the actuation on a high perf tab system is way way faster than a dual ram bennett. If it was a tab problem I'd bet the up/down was backwards on one tab. That will throw you for a loop.

Just glad to open up one of these threads and find out that nobody was hurt.

Just guessing but if the indicator was bad, and the tab was not in the position he expected I can see where you could be surprised. And it makes more sense if they were not running hard, because at speed you would definately feel the tab being off. I can't comment on this or any other boat, but I would never drive mine without working indicators. On my boat a small tab change makes a big difference, only need to tap the buttons to make normal adjustments.

Why do u guys keep talking about tabs. The driver and the police reports say it was a wave that caused roll.

Bennetts Vs Kiekhaefer tabs...
 

Huge difference. I've run single ram Bennett's, dual ram Bennett Sport tabs and Kiekhaefer all on the same hull.
I exploded a ram on the single Bennetts, upgraded to dual ram sport Tabs and exploded one of them (both while running in conditions way beyond their design limitations) and now to the Kiekhaefers.
I liked and was used to the action/reaction of the Bennetts way better. I could bury them and keep the boat on plane at 20 MPH's (30 MPH min planing speed w/o) in wicked conditions and run some down tab, up trim and the fly the boat through chop on the motors/tabs at speed. Large fun.
The Kiekhaefers are actually too big for this small of boat (24') and they're way fast. Keep in mind the Bennetts run off a single, tiny pump for both tabs where the Kiekhaefers have an individual pump (trim pump from a freagin I/O!) for each one.
Mine are so fast in my boat that if you just tap the button they free wheel past the happy spot almost every time.
I know people that won't even use their tabs because they're scared of them. Hold the button until the boats where you want it and it's too late.

I was under the impression that SV43 was a guy from the Outerlimits and this is what he said on page 1:
"Everone is fine. I am sure this post will have many storys, but only one tru story. Indicator on tab did not show proper display (new L.E.D. type) Doesnt take much to go over with a fast single engine boat."

Run some heavier oil in them, that will slow the speed of the ram.

Upgraded to billet 24's on a fast single Checkmate, big difference ( and no more blowing the clamped-on oil lines off the dual instatrim rams at 90+ ) but tab adjustments needed to be made with care and in small increments, letting the boat's attitude adjust after each small bump of the switches.

That is a valid-accurate point you made regarding the inexperienced boater, regardless of the earlier criticism, that is from a legal perspective. If you (manufacturer) knew a defect exist(s), then you put that product in the market place and it fails, and you knew it would fail from manufacturer testing then watch out. That is not applicable in this accident, but now it is known that a potential defect may exist, so hence the defect (potential defect) needs to be addressed.

OL makes a good product, they will get that tab issue rectified.

He is right, I know that.

I agree. It is an interesting topic though. I'm still just saying that in a smaller single, which is where my experience lies, I wouldn't use tab indicators to dictate my tab use anymore than I would trim via the trim gauge. Now it might be nice to have an indicator to look at and see where the tabs are when you've tweaked them but I drive by the feel of the boat and, as said, it is in small increments of tab and trim. If you hold the switch until you feel the effect then it can get you in trouble. I'm also aware that K-planes are different.

It sounds to me like these guys were maybe just pushing the boat to it's "Outer" limits to see at what point it would spin or get ugly and they found that point! I hope that's what it was.

thank you, thats what I use to break.:party-smiley-004: I had seen a big different between my 280s and 380s on both boats 24, 28 running them.ART :cartman:

I found that out, 1st test run last yr lol. we still had air in the steering too. so we only ran 30 to 40 while testing the 1st prop. overnite we got the air out, but with my high x I like the 380s, so we changed them the next week. my 24 loved them in the rough with the higher x too.:cartman:ART

Right about what? The fact that they need to find out what happened and rectify it? Umm...of course, not sure of your point.

Your statement in post #76 is "Gimme a break will ya? WTF do you know?" in response to thirdchild's post.

You further wrote in post #78 "Oh...thank goodness...I guess that slams the door shut on the OL29, thanks for saving the poor suckers that were going to purchase this machine."

Thirdchild was right in regards to his post that stated, "if a new design has already overturned at moderate speed then maybe they need to find out why before more of them end up in the hands of inexperienced boaters. JMO and excuse me for telling it like it is." You disagreed with this statement in your posts in #76 and #78. I find thirdchild's statement to be accurate.

I hope that clarifies any misunderstanding. I am not attacking you.

All disagreements aside, this boat is NOT ready to be released to the public if the owner of the company rolled it during testing. Whether is is trim tab, a slippery bottom, a rough wave(9:30 AM?), or just pushing the boat to its limits, there is obviously still some safety issues that need to be ironed out first.

Was Golddigger ready as the first cat?

Don't know if wave or tabs but here is a story!Marina wired trim switch backwards small big single powered boat after I forgot@65+mph I hit it and bow steered almost crashed and rolled just lucky that day??The fast 29' boats with singles are a hand full:duel:Going fast over 70 mph even slowing down you need a lot of seat time not for novice:whistle:PS You run out of hull then it's up to you to get the boat right:party-smiley-004:

You have an interesting point. I think you've mentioned before you were an attorney. Where is the line drawn between defect, driver error and caveat emptor? Since these are boats and not cars isnt there a difference?

Im not up on the OL line of production boats, but did Golddigger ever roll or spin out during testing? Was there ever any safety concerns about that boat?.... I dont know. Ive never personally heard ANY reports, all positve feed back actually.

That is a great question, unforntunately I am going to give you a wishy-washy bulls*t answer which is "it depends." There are so many factors to consider when drawing the distinction between driver error, product defect (manufacture defect, design defect, or failure to warn), and the buyer beware caveat you mention, that there may not be one best answer or any brightline answer.

I do not handle personal injury or products liability. E-mail if you have any questions, not sure if I can help, but to give and accurate answer I would be typing for the next hour.

Stephen

Golddigger's issues were all related to owner supplied power. This 29 incident was related to a mechanical failure / faulty indicater, the boat runs extremely well, and unfortunately did what any boat (as many on here have attested) will do when a tab is malfunctioning.

Keep testing, get it all sorted out. That is one nice looking boat, and I am have confidence in your company it will be (and probably is already) fast and safe.

Wait? You are an attorney and you are going to give me a "Wishy-Washy answer"? Really? (kidding of course)

Just find it odd, if it were a vehicle, you could sue the manufacturer. In the world of high performance boats (especially anything that goes 100+) I would assume every court in the country would consider this a specialty "racing" type vehicle just as it said in the news release "racing boat". Therefore, you are on your own if you flip it, crash it, run somebody over... I would assume every speed boat that goes over 70+ mph vaguely falls into the "Experimental Aircraft" kind of thing and if you want to push the limits - go ahead, but you are on your own.

A faulty indicator is not a mechanical failure IMO. That being said things happen quickly out there when running these speeds. Most boats will get "out of shape" when pushed hard using the wrong trim and tab settings and it's not the fault of the boat.

Accidents happen, that's why they're called accidents. I'm just glad no one was hurt.