mitchie plus 1
People love to think that they are somehow the knowledgeable, experienced voice of reason. It's actually
hilarious how a bunch of you are hating on Mr. Tomlinson... And villainizing him and such. It is pretentious and ignorant the way you guys are behaving. I personally was really looking forward to seeing him run at the shootout again.... And I also feel that we are all lucky that this guy and others are pushing the boundaries and finding whats still possible in offshore boats... Alot of you naysayers I bet are less in control of your v-bottoms at 70 plust than Bill is at 150mph.

That mitchie i agree alot of computer offshore racers!!!!!!

+1

1. I am glad everyone is OK

2. I feel if someone wants to air it out and they have the space to do it away from others then go for it

3. I wonder if there was not an unseen issue from the previous spin....I can't imagine the stresses that were put on that boat in the spin

4. I am certainly not one to have the knowledge or experience to question anyone running that boat

5. I personally think that cats have an issue where they like to sail and it can happen even in small waves at high speeds and I think that cat builders need to start looking at control surfaces and computers to prevent that (like the flip up hatch on a NASCAR)

here is another video with Johnny Tomlinson (Tomlinson seems to be a name that likes to go fast haha) letting it rip in a Skater not too long ago and at 1:56 is what makes me nervous about cats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc5Y9...feature=relmfu

I do not like the way they seem to dance from edge to edge if they get a bit airborne and things are not perfect and even on some of those other small waves there was a lot of "bow rise" IMO

the Razz Apache video from years earlier on that same link with the same driver (probably different guy on throttles) sure they are going much much slower (probably 85 or so tops), but they are hitting huge waves and getting huge air and even on the one jump where they get way up there and land back down on the transom it does not appear they are close to turning over.....I am not sure a cat even at those much slower speeds would say the same thing

I think it is time to look into some computer controls for cats going that speed with a foil or control surface that will activate past a particular degree of bow rise...I am not sure what could be done for the dancing

I am not being critical of the owner of the driver at all I think they can drive their boat how they wish and Bill Tomlinson has proven he can run hard and fast....but IMO cats go over too much for me and I wish there was a way to stop it or in this case a way to prevent a large bow rise and very hard transom landing.....and again I wonder if there was not prior damage from the spin

Looking at that video small cruiser is being conservative, looks to be in the 40+ range IMO after looking at that video.

As to the speculation if it was caused by a deep draft wake or cabin cruiser wake, I will add this.

At approximately the same time there were 4 deep draft vessels taveling upbound on the seaway. Having been a recreational performance boater on the St Lawrence for over 10+ years, and stationed with the Coast Guard here for the past year and a half, I will personally attest that the reflection of waves in the seaway can occur for a long period of time after the frieghters have passed. It is also very uncommon to see that many frieghters pass in the same direction so close to each other.

I was not on scene when the accident occured (I was actually at Steamboat cut watching them pass Rockport), but would agree that the surface conditions of the combined vessel traffic, particularly rough that day, would be capable of creating a swell large enough to launch MY WAY, even without the freighters in sight.

Glad to see the crew is ok, and look forward to seeing MY WAY return to the waters.

***cannot view video on station computer, simply noting conditions can be rough and unpredictable, even in a relatively narrow river

Agreed, and it looked off plane producing a good size wake. That can be upsetting. even for a Deep V. There has been a few....Mr Cigarette comes quickly to mind & a big sutphen (no name) but it can & does happen. It sucks , but if everyone is ok when it's over, then it really wasn't the worst possible scenario.

Thanks for the follow up. I just want people not to be miss- informed.

WELL PUT. HE has a cottage about a km down from me and he is probably the nicest guy there is. He knows how do drive. I went for a ride in his 46 skater with turbines and he seemed to handle it very well. ive seen him out in this mystic lots of times without any problems,.

He did not break the law, and sure he knows what he is doing but if things like this keep happening they will change the laws and that cruiser will be a fast boat. Pontoon poker runs here we come.

Bingo.. These types of events are supposed to be fun runs.. So, have fun. Do your speed runs elsewhere. No one got hurt THIS TIME, but what about the next time?