BoatShow239

I am a little surprised there have been no conversations about where this happened.

There are places where the St Lawrence is only 0.07 miles wide in the area of A Bay. One of the wider places is near Cape Vincent and that is 1.22 miles, but constricts in a fairly short distance east... well short distance at great speed.

Please understand, these are bank to bank widths, not "safe" channel widths.

There are two possible sweeping turns which come to mind on the western end of the River. Around Carleton Island and just to the east of A Bay, but that is not to say that is where the near fatal incident occurred.

I have spent a great deal of time on this portion of the River and can assure you there are no, No, NO excuses for the reported speed with the slight exception of the the very few miles to the east of Carleton Island. Well, unless they might be willing to go 1.8 miles west of Cape Vincent into Lake Ontario... oh, sorry, no spectators!

Again, with the exception of just east of Carleton Island, jet ski and small craft activity on almost any day is unbelievable. And likely even more so on what should have been the first weekend of school aged children's summer in NY!

There are places on the River where there are speed limits for all craft and places where there are speed limits for selected craft. I, for one, would hate to think we would start to see traffic control devises on the water everywhere.

I can just see getting to the middle of Lake Ontario and having a 4 way stop! OK, just kidding!

Indy

Rules of the road don't mean jack in some scenarios, you can look in both directions but a few seconds later a boat hauling major a$$ can be upon you before you know it. Most people don't have the perspective of 100 MPH+, boats generally travel at common speeds and we're tuned in to those speeds when making decisions.

I've been in situations where I've had people on me before I realized it and I'm in the sport, sometimes things just happen and you're not prepared for it.

That's where the onus is on the operator of a boat/vehicle that travels well above the usual speeds. There's places to run these machines safely and those where common sense must prevail. This is just generally speaking and I don't know the specifics of this incident but I'd have a hard time assessing blame when running well out of the boundaries of the norm.

4195

First of all thank god no one was killed, that in itself is a miracle. Matt good article. But with all that being said I have to ask WTF? Who really believes they are qualified to not only drive a boat this fast but to do it in a smaller area where the others around them are unaware that the person coming at them has a death wish. Not to mention he had passengers who's life he was responsible for. This is pure stupidity this is wreckless and that is not debatable. It is these people that give this sport the negative public opinion. In my opinion everyone should be outraged by the actions of this driver and he should be well aware that the boating community does not condone this type of wreckless behavior from any of it's members. Time and place certainly come to mind and also you don't need passengers at those speeds, they will become victims!

speicher lane

I wasn't implying that MY Way was innocent - just that the conclusions people seem to be drawing is that speed is the factor but hard facts are not given just speculation as to how fast the boat was actually running. ... and any other of the variables that could have come into play.

It is a game of chance running at speed on land or water. In Germany I run a Benz across the country to visit friends. The car is caplable of 300km/hr ( 186mph) but I haven't been over 200km on the Autobahn - road conditions and traffic volume just didn't allow for it..... but it seems that it is assumed that MY Way runs hammer down 100% of the time without regards to surroundings

johnnyboatman

iTrader: (5)

i dont know about you guys but ive had several close calls with seadoos, and dumbass wake board boats, hell yes if the powers there were going to stretch her out, ive had boaters cut rite in frt of me not paying attention. i always look ahead, behind and to the side before i make a turn. these other guys think cause there pulling a tube and want to jump my wake that im going slo so they cut in frt of you and before there rope is away from the frt of my boat cause they think were going 30 i have to get out of the throttle and make a hard turn to avoid running over there kid, scares the hell out of me, makes you want to give them a ticket for being a dumbass.

HEDGEHOGER

* 100% I felt the cost guard did a great job keeping the course clear of onlookers

phragle

iTrader: (3)

So what your saying is that we have one turbine powered mystic doing exhibition laps alone on a race course, while we have multiple turbine mystics racing at an exhibition event... or am I just dyslexic

Philm

I still doubt that they were actually going 190mph. We all know that the boat is more than capable of doing it, i just doubt that they were.

Obviously they were going too fast for the conditions present, but let's be serious here, aint no way that boat is going to stay water side down at that speed, while spinning three times, and with no one even getting so much as a scratch.

If someone who was in the boat gets on here and says "yes, we were going 191mph when we spun three times" then i will believe it, but I sure as hell aint believing a bunch of spectators. Most of them probably just heard that the boat can run over 190mph so they assumed that it was going that fast.

VtSteve

OOPS ! Quick draw math on my part.

Yes 3 miles a minute.

olli

100%.