Thank you for this first hand experience post. THis is what I am trying (and others) to get at. Lets say this mechanical difficulty you experienced had happened while traveling within feet of spectator boats? You most likely would have hurt someone seriously... I am now way saying you would ever drive this close to spectator boats.. It sounds like your experience has tought you a valuable driving leason. You also have been humbled enought to admit yourmistake and learn from it, which is great!. I am just using your experience to prove my point. Had an engine shut down, a hyd failure or any number of things happened on the PP Skater while it was that close to spectator boats it would have been catestrophic... Or maybe even someone was swimming or sitting on a raft....

Also, Poker Runs are not sport. Sport requires competition. Driving around a lake collecting cards is not sport. It may be fast and colorful and exciting and fun but it is not sport. SBI, OSS, OPA racing is sport when you're competing against someone in a race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZZ60jrw6cg

and yet for some reason millions of dollars and even billions of dollars is spent on tire technology in the form of rummer compounds, tread patterns, sidewall structure, build structure of the tire, belting materials

and millions if not billions of dollars is spent on suspensions (like active suspensions), geometry of suspensions, weight of components and materials used

anti-lock breaks, active wings, air bags

so really what your solution sounds like is accept that boats will not place money into technology or technological advancement, slow them down, but a big orange life preserver on everyone and a canopy and just go out there and do flip after flip

because F! and others put no money into improving technology until the speeds that could be raced at for the majority of laps got to the point where any crash was going to be catastrophic before they decided to dial back the speeds because they were getting speeds that were getting beyond catastrophic

well boats are pretty much there now between flipping and stuffing and even with canopies there have been deaths so it is either put on another orange life preserver for more cushion in that flip or perhaps think about trying to reduce the incidents of flipping and with an active control surface I would believe you could also reduce the incidents of stuffing as well by keeping the bow level to the water VS letting it get nose down

unfortunately because of a weak sanctioning body or bodies ad because of unsanctioned "races" high performance boats have been allowed to just add more power with only moderate improvements in overall safety especially when it comes to limiting/avoiding crashes VS the idea that "we might survive it with a spare air strapped to my big orange life vest and a canopy"

safety and speed have always gone hand and hand in sanctioned racing and that includes technological advances to limit the need for crash survival not just advancements in surviving crashes.....otherwise Indy cars would still be like they were in the 1930s only with a big roll cage all around them and 800hp running on 4 little thin tires that have to be changed every 2 laps

At 8:30 in this vid the driver of this boat comes off plane pretty darn fast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL0GrnnNwhE

Great post.....But it is tough to help your fellow boater out or help him have an escape route when all your thinking about, while in front, is ribbing him that you have beat him to the card stop. Here lies the MOST BASIC problem. IT IS NOT A RACE. I know I have caught myself getting caught up in the moment just like I would think most of us have. Until we solve this problem, or mindset, we are on a fast path to self destructing our sport. All I can control is what I do. I don't have a boat that runs as fast as others but it does run fast enough to get me in trouble if I'm not on m y game. You guys with the ultra fast stuff have got to take a good look at where we are headed. I know I am with what I have got. And this pretty much goes across the board if we are running sport boats.

Ok then...this begs the question; Is this this type of activity on an open course safe?

Then they're free to post the vids, I'm sure every one of these boats is equipped with Go-Pro. Then that should put an end to the speculation right?

Man am i glad i only go to two events every year... that was stupid. Almost impossible for me to believe they would do that...

I love boating alone on the great lakes... none of this s**t to deal with.

Tom

and here is one on a 1/8th scale hydroplane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WhFfBQSw9w

here is the person that built it talking about it

http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...p/t-19596.html

the reason they are not computer controlled on RACING is because they are RACING and they want the human factor involved and it is a simple fact that a computer can make a decision faster than a human can in instances of flying and the like because if a human without the aid of a computer tried to fly the stealth bomber it would crash and it is only with the aid of a computer that it flies

and again we are talking about a safety feature to try and prevent a catastrophic event not something that is there to get 1 more MPH or 5 more MPH out of a hull or horsepower and we are talking about what should be considered non-race boats not race boats on a closed course with a professional driver surrounded by other professional drivers that know they will kill someone if they cut them off and send their rooster tail up the tunnel

would it be 100% fail safe no nothing is, but the technology is out there and the vast majority of components are on the shelf already it is the modeling of the hulls and the aerodynamics of the hull and when that critical point is that needs to be studied

if you watch boats (or anything else) flip it always starts very slowly with a slow liftoff and everyone in the crowd thinks "is it going over" and then very rapidly it has pretty much gone over......implementing a system that reacts in that "is it going to go over period" would greatly reduce the number of times it does go over.....again look at NASCAR all they put in place is what looks like a deck hatch on a boat that pops up.....it is not for speed, it is not for aerodynamics, it is not for improved handling it is for one thing and one thing only to prevent flips