Offshoreonly.com - Analysis: When Cats Fly

Interesting theory. I’m a big believer in Occam’s razor - “The simplest solution is usually the right one.” Both boats running at 11/10ths, aggressively trimmed for maximum speed, hit the same bump in the water and encountered the same rush of air/wind, and over they went. The Jackhammer performed an almost identical blow over running entirely by itself, although perilously close to the infamous “harbor pipe”. We probably won’t know for certain what happened in either incident, or previous similar ones, without some computer modeling.

What we do know, however, is that the six crewmen are incredibly lucky to be alive today as similar accidents have taken the lives of the boat’s occupants in the past. One thing we can say is that the canopies did their jobs. In both instances, it appeared the safety crews responded fast and appropriately.

To echo the wise words of Rich Luhrs, George Linder, and Steve Curtis, however, there needs to be a dedicated safety commission established to review these accidents, the safety systems and boats, and make recommendations for changes or improvements. The sport appears to be on the edge of a resurgence, which as a 45 year fan, is exciting! That also means we are likely to see more boats, faster boats, more teams, and lesser experienced crews taking to the water. The days of us being the most dangerous Motorsport in the world must be over.

A final sobering thought: I have been intimately involved in the investigation of several canopy failure related deaths over the past 20 years, and given the damage observed on the three boats in KW, a few feet either way in terms of the impact points on the canopies could have created a very different result, and a much more difficult situation for the rescue crews as well.