correct on the faster but I'm not really sure by how much i suppose in a spec class enough to make a differance, when speaking of prop rotation in the pits you will often hear the term "spin it to win". I also think spinning gives the boat a lighter feel and a false sense of better control. On the Talon cat i raced we always spun the props out and it actually seemed to handle better the faster you went. The boat ran very flat and i think that a lot of poker runners would not like that. We slid the boat several times at over a hundred and i just put the throttles in the kitchen and you could feel the tail of the boat settle right down and keep the boat upright.


again i have always kept it to myself over the years but a vast majority of the cats i have seen go over were spinning in, the only one that was spinning props out was Tomcat in Cambridge about six years ago but i remember seeing skeg damage leading me to think they struck something. The broken skeg airates the prop badly. I have had that happen as well and i knew something was wrong because i could not keep the engines off the limiters no matter how light a was on the throttles.

I don't think that there is anything that can effectively be added to a boat such as a wing or flaps to stop a blow over. I am no expert here, but isn't the reason for a tunnel is to pack air at speed and lift the hull out of the water ??? We have all seen how fast it happens and I see no way to stop it at the speeds it is happening at.

Damn that was close to those boats. I was always under the assumption that you had to be so many yards away from an anchored vessel. I'd guess those boats were inside of 7 yards or less. Common sense seems to be lacking in some instances.

Dave, I agree that if this thread stays on track, collectively we may stumble on something. As for the spins, yeah, that's a problem as well. How to address it, I have no idea. But the blow-overs are what have killed the people and that just is something that can be solved. As for the comment from bripar 77 questioning the validity of a manufacturer using something like this because of being sued? Aren't they getting sued anyway? Besides, the device would record its own movements and move only as far as would be needed to bring the boat back to earth, not slam the front of the boat down to a point of it subbing.

Self policing and self control will work for the majority on both the participant and spectator sides but unfortunately there will be some that screw it up and as I said before you cant fix stupid, etc

Damn i think the water patrol can see from the videos of how close these guys were coming and instead of ruining it for everyone go back thru these videos and start writing tickets for breaking the rules, it clearly says something to the matter of slow speeds to non moving or slow craft yes its off topic from the death of two individuals but if they did that in the beginning we may be sitting here enjoying the poker run pics instead of mourning the death of brad and jeff.

I will stay out of this debate. :-)

I know there are some sensitive issues going on with loss of life here...but closing your eyes to this kind of boating is the same as condoning it. I've seen at least three videos that show some of the most irresponsible boating I have ever seen. At the speeds these guys are traveling, there is absolutely no way they could see someone floating on a life jacket, 15 feet of their transom before its too late. I am mind boggled that there aren't more people on this forum shouting out about this. If this is how they run on this poker run, they need to shut it down now!

3 deaths in less than 5 years.......all high speed cats at LC............ There is no way this run will be put on next year. The more spectator videos I watch the more convinced that place is totally out of hand.

I guess my thoughts are that the added bow lift cause by spinning in along with crossing the crest of a wake can decrease tunnel volume giving higher tunnel compression adding to lift. In general spinning in has the ability to introduce some bad situations across many levels. Blow overs were only about a quarter of the events i have chalked to memory and about half were race and half poker runs. Its been rattling around my head for a while and hope to get others input. I agree whole heatedly self policing is very important here as well.

Unfortunately I think this is what will happen. Locally there was very strong talk after Kevin passed away during the 09 run of it being the end of the LC Poker Run. Now after this accident I think it will be done away with for good.

Too bad because we have one of the prettiest lakes in the country and its by far the greatest weekend of the year.