What if - no kill switch???
 

Wanna see what can happen when you don't wear your kill switch in big water?? Near Cheasapeake Bay Bridge in May 2000. This was a restored '76 Excalibur............

that sux, those are great old boats. hope no one was hurt. :( but you are very correct . . .WEAR THOSE KILL SWITCHES!!! ... .


do you have any other info on the accident?

The guy actually wrote a little article about his misadventure for Chesapeake Bay magazine. He said he was running in moderate seas, not too fast, been out a hundred times, yada, yada, yada. Anyhow,he gets thrown out of the boat outside Annapolis harbor and the boat heads due east across the bay and hits the other shore. I think I remember that another boat (he may have been racing) stopped and picked him up. They chased after the boat but lost track of it. By the time they found it it had beached and apparently the engines kept running and caught the thing on fire. I remember thinking at the time that this guy was a poster child for kill switches. IIRC he was also not wearing a PFD so it could have been WAAAAYY worse.

It was mine. Boat ran great with 468 and ironically a Bravo drive from a burned up Baja I bought. Ran the hell out of boat for 4 years, and it was the second Day out in 2000, after watching BLUE ANGELS show from water for Naval Academy graduation. Dropped two friends off at Annapolis Harbor, and called my wife to tell her I'd be home in about 20 minutes.

Tried "proving my point" on way home with a 35 or 38 Cig with 800sc's. He was showing off his motors at the docks (I would've too). Blew by him and turned around to see if he was catching up. I love to run light and loose, and figured I was going to have to back down soon, as I was getting into some pretty big water at about 80. I dropped in a big hole and popped up all out of shape, hit hard, and next thing I knew I was head over heels cart-wheeling across the water. I came to the surface expecting to see my boat upside down, but instead heard a very sickening sound ---- the damn thing was taking off again!.... Boat was running about 50 -60 and was out of the water about half the time. The guy in the Cig pulled me out, but wouldn't follow the boat. He dropped me off with a DNR boat answering the call, who was out off gas - we had to go to get gas instead of go after the boat. Long story short, the Coast Guard found the boat about 8 miles away, sitting on a deserted beach and still runniing, dry, -- an hour later!! The water was to shallow to get thier big cutter in, so they dropped a man to walk in, but the boat went up in flames when he was about 60 yards away. Believe it or not that damn bravo drive survived with barely a scratch - prop too. I got lucky, no one was hurt - I cracked my thigh on the side of the boat on the way out and couldn't walk for a few days - Still have the paint embedded in my suit - won't come out.....

I am very glad you were and no one else was hurt! Boats and the Ocean demand respect at all Times . Always wear your PFD and the Operator of any power boat must always use some kind of kill switch and often check there functionality. Jo

insptech,

The magazine originally told the story I told DNR - That I was doing about 50, and DNR thought that was insane in that kind of water. No one in their right mind would have admitted to running balls out. The magazine almost a year later paid me $250 for my story, which took care of the $100 fine that DNR gave me. I figured then it was safe to tell the truth without additional fines from DNR, and thought people needed to hear it. I've pretty much raced every performance boat I come across, and I'm sure none of them thought it could happen to them either........ Nice picture of bay bridge in background - such a clear day it doesn't look like 10 miles away......

Glad you are ok.I hate to hear stories of people being ejected.I was washed overboard in a low speed stuffing incident on a 31 Chris Craft Stinger.Not fun.

Kill Switches are great but you NEED to have a second pair of caps and the other people in the boat NEED to know were they are!!! I am glad you make it out with a bad bruise and that your boat did not hit anything but a desserted beach.

Jon

damn I guess Now with my future repower I will need
to start wearing my kill switch lanyard :eek:

Thank God no one was seriously hurt

Glad you were o.k., sure made me remember those kill lanyards and a pfd when I'm alone. Sorry if I paraphrased the story, it has been a while.

I read that story!! You are one lucky SOB!!! That is a shame about your boat, looks very clean!:(

I was tossed out of an Apache running over 80 on the NYC poker run in '99. No life vest, got knocked out and luckily was found by one of the other 3 guys tossed!! I always wear my lanyard and when I'm running hard or the water turns ugly on goes the sospenders!! :)

Man.....that sux.

Glad no one was hurt.

Bull[cough]$hit!!!

Ted,
no problem. You were actually pretty close considering how much stories usually change over time! I grew up in Olney, know Gaithersburg quite well.

Jon,
At the time I thought for sure someone was going to get hurt, or it was going to spear some lawyers sailboat, (we've got lots of those here) and I'd loose everything I had or ever would have..... color me lucky.......

'nother pic. Carb actually melted down into intake - gone !!

We had a similar result in the Bay this year again, boat found with motor running ashore (Pooles Island/Aberdeen area), nobody around. DNR suspected 2 fishermen were ejected from the boat and were searching. I never followed up on the story, not sure what exactly happened. I think it was around August of this year.

Glad you're okay, could have been a real tragedy beyond just the loss of the boat. You're from G'burg area like Ted? We won't hold it against you. :)

WOW! that is all hard to belive. No one else getting hurt, but hitting an island, motor getting so hot it torched the boat. Yikes! :( Rag's

Hate to say it but it does not matter what power you are running. :(

Remember a few stories about boats running alone
one was a jet boat, little seado not a pwc but the boat style. Not sure if it was a single or twin, does not matter, it ran aground into a crowded beach :(
Memory is not perfect but I do know it hit at least two people and I want to recolect that one of the two died, but not positive on the outcome.
One time on my own PWC I fly over a barge wake on the ole Miss river and I found my self going right when the ski went left. The ski ended on shore and i had to swim to it. If the lanyard was not attached to kill it who knows how far it would have went.
Another local boater ran his bout aground at over 60. Landed up an embankment onto the road over 50 feet from the shore line. His daughter was in the cabin, him and his sons were ejected. I think one son died :(

I cannot believe boats are even built without kill switches. I know mine was :( Argued like hell about it .
Never realized it until seeing all the accidents.
I put one in and wear if faithfully.

This story needs to end on the note as to what boat replaced this one??

Ouch that sucks!!!

No really, I don't know who it was but someone was thrown from the boat.

Similar story a few years back here on Lake St. Clair in Michigan - local sheriff was called about a performance boat running in circles on the lake one Sunday morning. Turned out to be a 27' Baja or similar, guy went out early on a Sunday morning, probably wanted to let the horses run before the lake got crowded; I've done similar things myself. They pulled his body from the water 3 months later... wear those PFDs and lanyards!

My Dad watched this happen years ago at a lake:

Older, 1970s time frame, I/O day cruiser (they usually had pretty big cockpits), became driverless, and was making large circles, at a lake, slowly being pushed toward a crowded beach by breeze. As a couple people realized what was happening, time was running out to do something about it, and the boat was going to hit the swimmers if it did not hit this particular dock first. Turns out, a 16 year old kid attempted and succeeded in a running leap into the boat, as it passed the end of this dock, got the drivers seat, and brought the boat back in safely. The kid was heralded as a local hero.

kill switches
 

A week after the accident, a good friend gave me his boat a week after the accident because it needed a new motor and he didn't use it much. A nice little 20' liberator - runs 65mph with 330hp/350 I put in - good for getting the wife and kids out, but no good for the bay. He said I could use it as long as I wanted until I replaced what I lost. That was almost 4 years ago, and I just finally got my fifth boat. 81 Cig Squadron 27 - blown 540, huber trans, trs........ I'm in heaven....



PS. the really sad story is the guy in the Cig who picked me up had the chance to be a hero, but He said he "didn't have the time or enouph gas to follow that thing all over the bay". I even offered to fill his tanks - how much does a 35-38 Cig hold anyway!? - but he still pussied out, even in front of his 3 passengers.
I saw him from a distance a year later in a 40' canopied offshore cat - didn't get the chance to remind him that it's your actions, not the toys, that makes you a man!!

Glad to hear you were OK.

Chris Reindl

That was me and three of my friends. Warpaint now owns the boat!! :eek: