3missing after cat flips off Cape Coral
 

Pretty damn windy with some Bad gusts coming down the river today.

3 rescued 1 dead 1 missing.

update.


https://www.fox4now.com/cape-coral/boating-accident-reported-near-the-cape-coral-yacht-club-cape-coral-fire-says

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Sad

Praying for our friends.

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I first saw the post shared on fb, Thats terrible!

Not good.

Terrible and sad. Prayers for all family and FMO extended-family and friends.

Incredibly sad

Sending Prayers for all involved. :( Unfortunately, the local media and keyboard experts will have a field day with this one. That is a tricky area where the accident occurred. 25 mph speed limit...and beginning of a no wake zone.

It is human nature to speculate. We all do it.

Out of respect for those involved and their families, let's rise above human nature and not give voice to speculation.

Fine, not the time.

I’ve been working at the boatyard about 30 miles upriver and the last 5 days the wind has been weird. Generally east are gusty but we would have normal 10 mph winds and then a 30-40 mph gust would hit for a few seconds. It was like that yesterday about that time of day.

Prayers to all the families involved. Really stinks to read this.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, a catamaran flipped near the Cape Coral Yacht Club early Saturday evening, resulting in the deaths of three people, and leaving one person missing, until search crews located the missing individual on Sunday.

The fourth person had been missing until Sunday afternoon, when Sea Tow crews, who were actively assisting in the search, discovered the body. Sea Tow personnel on scene confirmed the recovery.


So does this mean all 4 died?

Rip. :(

I read that same article and I pray it's wrong and as far as I know it is wrong. I'm hearing Kirby has extensive injuries and took in a lot of saltwater but I think he's still with us.

FACTS, needs to be said louder!!

So sad for everyone involved.

First of all, my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this tragedy. Loss of life is terrible no matter what the circumstances are and it hits home when we know the people involved and they are part of our inner circle. Boating friends become family "we choose to go on poker runs, races, and boating related events and spending much of time together over being with our immediate family in many cases, this is family"... Please continue to pray for Neal and his ongoing recovery.

According to eye witnesses, it was a blow over, motors broke off the boat, and conditions were conducive as well.

Joe

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...f0dbd77cb3.jpg

i think thats the same boat greg rosen flipped last year leaving a huge hole in the go fast community up here going into a strong wind

It's a pleasure boat, (in most cases). I've spent notable time as a passenger, driving, and throttling a 39' MTI. At no time did I feel like the the boat was sketch, flighty, or anything that spooked me or the passengers.

Yes, there have been a LOT of cats of ALL manufacturers that have blown over and wrecked. There have also been a lot of V-bottoms with plenty of incidents as well. They cats can blow over or hook a sponson. The step-bottom vees can spin in a turn, bow steer into a roll/collision, etc. Plus 100+ more things that could go wrong.

It's the operators that screw these things up; if not mechanical issue.
We all make mistakes. I know I have.
Some of those have significant, dire, and deadly consequences.
It's not the hull/boat.
There is no Pinto, Corvair, or Suzuki Samurai of the boating arena.
(Well, maybe Bayliners.)

RIP to those that have passed, and my thoughts are with their families and friends.

So sad.

Prayers to all involved!

Just curious...what others have blown over like that in a non-race non-competitive environment? I'm genuinely asking not trying to start anything or relive any past tragedy for anyone. I retracted my earlier comment as I learned more about the channel marker vs. blow over debate.

^^^^ I would be curious also on what other OB cat mfg's that have been over in a pleasure boat environment?

There are most likely a substantially more amount of 39 MTI's than any other OB cat on the market, so you'd expect that they'd have a little more history. Not saying there hasn't been any others mfgs, but I've not heard of any.

1/1/2018 Sarasota FL. Windy conditions, wide tunnel as well. You guys can look up the details.

Joe

Considering how many of these light weight OB cats are out there, the mods available now, I am amazed there isn't more.

This one is very sad, only one of 4 survived,,,,,, RIP.

I don’t come here very often, but about every fourth or fifth time that I do, there is a sad thread like this one. That seems to be far too often.

I don’t have the experience and knowledge that you have, I respect your opinion and posts here.
But I think your comparison is wrong, these boats are not cheap junk with an engineering flaw, they are more like Dodge Vipers, Ford Shelbys and Corvettes. Dodge, Ford and GM all insured that the suspension, brakes, electronics and other safety features match as reasonably possible to the engine upgrades, and weight reductions. While these vehicles have been crashed lots and killed lots of people, none of them stand out as particularly dangerous,

I’m not sure that the same can be said for this brand or this boat type(cats) if I could afford an $800,000 plus sport boat, I would expect/hope that the manufacturer would have focussed as much on safety as they did on speed, Do we know that is the case in the cat industry and particularly at this manufacturer.

DCB
Skater
Hellkat
STV (adding because I had a friend perish in one blowing over)
...all come to mind. I'm sure there are others.
But no one believes unless it's caught on video.

All very fair points.
Boats and cars do not directly correlate, although the Dodge Viper is definitely the closest as such. Same goes for the Porsche 930/911 aka the "widow-maker".

Firstly, my condolences to the families of the deceased. If these figures are indeed correct (and one then calculates the death rate/(hours operated X total builds) this is completely unacceptable.

With the very high percentage of aerodynamic lift/hydrodynamic on these modern outboard cats, the driver needs to be properly trained as to the limits of the design. Perhaps (as with light aircraft) there should be some mandatory training to licence….



ND1

Ughh...I always thought I followed along closely but I attributed some of those to collisions with objects or operating in a foolish manner. Thanks for following that comment with a reply.

Years ago my buddy down here in Florida had a Magnum missile with a built johnaRoo that ran 85 and he drove it like he stole it. Even running 60 mph alongside my 18” vee in 2-3 s.

He bought a STV a few years later and flipped and crashed it up the Coloosahatchee on his 3rd trip out . Gust of wind got under him and almost killed him but he was wearing a Lifeline.

One Word.

LIFELINE

Eerily similar to the one in North Idaho in 2022.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...29d576ff3.jpeg

Our friend blew over his STV on the Potomac years ago, went out through the side of the boat. It was pretty bad. It was an odd super warm January day, and several outboard guys went out. They were OTW back to the trailers when the incident occurred. They didn't find him for a few days.

or the V tail bonanza aka the “Dr Killer”.

I'm no cat expert but a sudden increase in headwind of 30+ MPH at speed sounds like a recipe for disaster. Still very sad. RIP to the victims and prayers to the lone survivor for a speedy recovery.

Tough to resuscitate when no one is around or your on the bottom.