Man that's some serious air. Very fortunate to have survived.
Time to step up into Ejection Seats

I'm glad to hear Mike should make a full recovery, they are both very, very lucky to be alive! Thank goodness the boat dissipated so energy in the air and by dragging the sponson during the flip, not to mention the angle of impact going in on the starboard side like that certainly helped these guys survive. The super tough carbon epoxy construction held up amazingly well, but that layup and canopy design would have been no match for the hydrodynamic forces that could have very easily have ripped the canopy right off had the angle of impact been different.

It's easy for us to say that canopies need to be built tougher, but I don't think most folks understand the hydrodynamic pressures involved at these speeds. Once the water has penetrated or breached the hull or canopy, it works like a hydraulic piston... even the best carbon epoxy layup and through bolted 1" thick Lexan doesn't stand a chance. Sure a structure could be built to handle these forces, but it would look be constructed and weigh more like a submarine... hardly practical for a light weight race/pleasure boat. Detachable safety capsules are probably the safest and most practical way to approach this, but I'm not sure how feasible that would be for these dual purpose boats... although something certainly worth considering for all out race boats like the turbine powered Mystic's running north of 200 mph.

Another thing that was brought up earlier in this thread was active stability control. It's worth mentioning that I believe AL Copland's Phenom was built with this technology in mind. I don't know if the software was ever fully tested or perfected, but the front wing on that boat was designed to work as a computer controlled stability management system. In theory it's a sound principle, but in practice I would image getting all the algorithms correct for the dynamics of running high speeds of the ever changing conditions of offshore racing would have to be an extremely challenging task at best... designing and implementing such a system is likely way beyond what most in the resin bucket industry are likely capable of doing without a lot of help from a team of engineers, and even then there would no doubt be a pretty good learning curve.

Again, I wish Mike (and his family) a speedy recovery and hope the injuries aren't too serious.

Found this video of the crash take from further down the course than the videos I've seen so far. Not the best footage, but this one captures the sounds of the impacts well. Truly frightening. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR7ECD9xe7U

been following the story most of the weekend since it happened and all I can say is WOW that thing took one hell of a hit and held up amazingly well. Glad theyre alive and kicking and prayers to the families and a speedy recovery.

Not sure if anyone caught the Today show this morning on NBC, but they announced that both occupants flew out of the boat during the crash. If you're going to show this on THE NATIONAL news, GET YOUR FREAKING FACTS STRAIGHT YOU JACKA$$ES!!!:bong:

I am far from a party pooper and love high powered machines and fascinated with all things fast and powerful! I would like to see all the boat manufacturers get together and combine forces to come up with some kind of fail safe system to prevent the high speed blowover. Something simple and cost effective.... Like a spoiler up front or a way to dump the high pressure air under the boat while simultaneously auto-deploying a drag chute from the transom?? Something to prevent an impending blowover and safely slow the boat down?

i dont know sh*t about this stuff but is there any possibility of putting computer controlled air brakes or a horizontal stabilizer on these boats that would help prevent this. These boats are so fast and and almost more like an aircraft in many ways at these speeds.

canard style forward horizontal stabilizers come to mind

http://www.lakeglenvillemtntop.com/Beech_Starship.jpg

Saw the same article, that's the news media for you, if you can't get the report right, better off saying nothing at all. My best to Mike and Joel.

Most MSM, which usually have a left leaning agenda, aren't concerned with reporting the actual facts of a story, they will run with whatever version they can come up with that will generate the most controversy. In this case, I imagine their attempt is to portray performance boats as being dangerous implements of death which need to be banned from use on public waterways.

Even a 777 can fly at these speeds. One would believe we have reached a turning point that will require flight skills to progress much further. It's over my head for sure.

Prayers for the families involved.