Boat Accident
 

Yesterday we were in a poker run in Clear Lake Texas. We were running in a channel were there are some tug boat and ship traffic. A guy in a 32 dominator hit the wake from the tug and the boat went straight up in the air. When the boat came down and hit the water. It busted in half. We pulled the passengers out of the water and thank god they were ok. The back half of the boat sank imediately. The nose sank in about five minutes. There was debry floating everywhere. I took pictures and will post them tomorrow. The boat was only a few months old. The guy driving the boat said that it just came apart when it hit the water.

Re: Boat Accident
 

Glad Everyone Is Ok.

Re: Boat Accident
 

You posted this on Sunsations website with a derogutry comment regarding sunsation. You also said you did not see the accident in that post, which you failed to mention here.
You shouldn't be posting this :

When the boat came down and hit the water. It busted in half

When you didn't see it. TX god everyone is okay would like to see your pictures. Anyone else go to this poker run?

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I was there. Did not see the accident but talked to the rescuers. We were out ahead of them, left Tiki in a Superboat early to meet my wife at SBC.

Jim

Re: Boat Accident
 

Sounds like the guy stuffed it, or landed way on its side.

And for some to say "busted in half" is others "part of the deck seperated from the hull" For example.

The important thing is here no one got hurt.

I wonder how much experience buddy had with fast boats?

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I have always been a big fan of sunsation. I just bought a Cafe Racer because i wanted something alittle bit bigger. I would own one if they had something bigger than 32. I am not trying to dog sunsation one bit. But i do beleive that the people that read these forums should know what is happening in the boating world. The tug boat captian saw excactly what happened. He was a good friend of the guy driving the boat that we were in. I said excactly what he told us. I saw the stringers floating in the water. The guy driving the boat told me, Quote " the boat just came apart" I do beleive that he is a unexperienced boat owner. I will be getting the pics today.

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Glad every ones ok !


Cougarman

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Here are some pics that were taken with a camera phone. I will have some that were taken with a digital camera later.

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The boat owner in the water.

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How long does it take for the salvage crew to bring up the major sections of the hull?

Glad all are OK.

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Glad everyone was o.k. ....

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WoW hope very one is alright!

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From what I heard it is in the ship channel in 50+ feet of water. Not sure is they will get it or not.

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If you have any experience running across big tug wakes at all you'll understand there is no such thing as casual 3-4's. Tug wakes have busted up many a boat and if not the boat, then the driver and/or passenger. They are notorious for being deceiving. There are a series of very large, steep, and deep wake caps that when you leave the water and come down across one amidship, it will crack your back flat water or not. Sea state is irrelevant. If you can imagine a boat lifting off pointing upwards, then on the way down the heaviest part comes down across the front side of a wave while the bow gets basically whipped downward as it is sticking up across the crest. The G-force must've been tremendous to have snapped, especially, a new boat. Of course right now perspective is speculative only.

I run across these behemoths all summer long and have learned respect the hard way and watched the lack thereof many times. As best I can "if" I'm gonna keep motoring across the impending series of multiple wake crests and not just stop and lob over them, I'll swing very wide and go back behind the tug as far as I can to reduce the wake sizes, then trim it level, slowing to a reasonable speed before pounding across it. It still will hammer your teeth out. Many times I see what looks like massive sunami's and just stop, point my bow into it and hold the heck on.

Don't under-estimate the power of the tug wake and the stress put on a "fiberglass" hull that tries to take it head on. Most of the time you will survive. But there are times you won't. I'd like to hear the driver's perspective, it sounded like there was too much trim going across that flipped the nose up like that. Typically it's hard for mine to flip up the nose like that, becuase the balance of these boats are so good.

BTW, I'm very glad to hear the driver appeared to escape without serious injury.

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Damn wake chasers. Almost as bad as SeaDoo's. :D I'm glad everyone made it home.

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Anyone know what year, hull, power this boat was? That is some scary chit. I don't see how the boat could of sunk so fast without hitting something in the water or something. I have seen race boats disentegrate off a stuff but usually they are going alot faster in churned up big water not off a wake (they are also usually older hulls with some pounding under thier belt)

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I think its an 04. I know it had twin 496HO's.

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:eek:

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What do those pictures have to do with the Sunsation accident CMG?

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I'm guessing that is an older race boat he was talking about. Is the owner of the Sunsation a member of the boards?

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Just to shoow how fast a boat can come apart

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I've heard horror stories from other boaters regarding tug boat wakes... Tug boats draft alot of water and even though arent moving fast are pushing water like a huge plow.

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They do not come out on this board. I talked to them yesterday. From what they have received so far, they are limited to comment anyway. They are hearing that the boat will not be brought up. If it is, they can look at the remains and try to determine what happened. Without that, any comments would just be speculative.

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Only the driver and any close eyewitnesses can give the true events of what happened. Anything is possible, but I will say I've been in two Dominators and one Dominator SS that all have caught some serious hang time off cruiser wakes. If the boats are set up properly ahead of time (in terms of tab and drive settings) and fly flat, these boats won't shutter, creak, groan or moan upon landing. If you stuff, tail-land, come down on the side, hook and roll, etc. any brand of boat and you introduce the potential for a catastrophic failure. Fortunately no one was injured.

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VERY WELL SAID! It took me a good 100 hours to really learn my hulls capabilties! Drive and tab settings in different water to really run as fast as I could. Took some bad landings (not many) to feel how the hull reacts, and flies!

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:D :D :D I remember one of those landing at the rally a few years back.

We have all had a few of those before, key is to learn from them.

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Agreed Mental, if it happens and you aren't sure why, then I would be a scared passenger.

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By virtue of the operating environment powerboaters run in, you will no doubt have the opportunity to encounter another.... ;)

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After reading this, I'm just glad no one was killed :(