Some Local Excitement
 

We had a great day boating last Sunday, logging about 75 miles on the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers. Our friends brought their 4 year daughter along and she was a blast. She is a little speed freak. Going through the rough water at 50, she had her arms in the air while yelling "weeeee". I couldn't go fast enough for her.

The local excitement came later when a big 45' Donzi with triple 500's ejected 11 of its 13 passengers. We saw this boat earlier in the day and thought it was crowded in the cockpit. It was nice to hear the captain was wearing his lanyard and the two kids had on lifevests. Everyone is OK. Here's the story...

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S946206.shtml?cat=206

holy crap... 13 people :eek:

the more time passes, the more we hear about these storys, about people being ejected because of the boat turning... are the steps boat more dangerous for that? I would think so! I turned pretty sharp manytimes with many different older boats, and I just can't understand what would cause this, since it never ever came close to that for me...

Usually happens on stepped boats when the driver tucks the drives or forgets to trim them out for a turn. Stepped boats will spin and roll if the drives are in because the pivot point moves from the transom of the boat forward, usually just infront of the first step. Purely speculation and hopefully not stepping on any toes but with 13 people on board he most likely had the drives tucked in completely to help stay on plane or just forgot to bring them out and took the turn a little to quick.

Glad no one was hurt.