3rd boat, is it a sutphen??? not good
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjluQW-KBas



might be a repost.

i have watched this like 30 times! looks almost like driver error, like he tryed to cut hard right after the hit?? unreal

Definitely driver mistake. It looks as tho his timing was off on the throttle and pulled to the right accidently on the wheel when he was in the air. Hopefully no one got hurt and everything turned out OK.

More info here:

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/b...e-jumping.html

ouch, i thought it was a sut. thats too bad. strange it looks like the boat just went out of control over a small wave. looks like that boat should have hit that little thing and hardly moved. im guessing he was trimmed way up, tab up, and going way to fast not hitting it dead on.
strange

Just looks like the left drive caught first in the water and the drag rolled it.
I paused it several times and didnt see any trim issues IMO.

Looked like Just bad freakin luck to me.

I actually purchased that 31 after the driver had the accident. I can tell you that the boat ran very well while I had it. It used to fly very nicely at 85-90. Boat ran 96-97 with some KE 620's and Bravo's. Great boat.

Do you remember what props you were running?

I assume that boat didnt sink then?

Jammin, as I recall the fastest wheel was a three bladed 14.5 x 26 or 28 bravo that Merc had played with a couple times. Above 90 the boat was as stable as with the 4 blades, but it ran nicely. Not sure what happened with the boat as far as sinking. My guess would be they got a line on it and towed it in while pumping water? Not sure. Seemed ok by the time I purchased it.

90+ mph. that is so sweet!!

UNfortunately I have seen thepumps in action!

Not pretty.

Typo above, three blades did not handle as well as four blades above 90.

With a 28 pitch prop, you must have been turning some high revs to see mid to high 90's.

depends if it was GPS or dream-O- meter 90!

Twin 620 KE @ 5600 RPM with 1:36 ratio = ~95 MPH !!!!

FACT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek:



( in a twin 30 footer with that power very believable ):ernaehrung004:

I didn't take into account a 1.36 ratio.

Jammin, actually the ratio was 1.5, rpm at 58-5900, props were either 26 or 28's that we added cup to (which reduces the slip or is like adding additional pitch to so they say) and did something with the rake. The four blades didn't have the re-work time just Merc's blueprint type deal.

I believe Richie held the Factory 2 speed record deal with a 32 and hp 500's at I think 92-93? He was probally running a 22x28 four blade huh? I believe you will find you can get some pretty efficient slip numbers with a 31 and some time spent with the wheels. I am thinking around 10% or so with a three blade which I believe is very good for a three blade.

I'm comparing to try and get some idea of where my boat will be this year although mine's quite different. A 30' with TRS drives. The engines peak at 5700 but I'm limiting them to 5400 where they make about 685 hp. Shorter boat, deeper drives and the center of gravity farther forward. I've got 32 B1's on now. I'll use them for break in and to see where I am and where I need to go.

heres an answer to some of our questions on this one.
Should have some pics soon from after the accident.


someone else will need to post them though for me.






This is a video of my boat accident on Lake Conroe in 1990. I was in the passenger seat on the left side of the boat. I broke through the windshield with my legs and hit the water at close to 70 mph with no lifejacket.

Jeff, I do have other photos right after the crash and am trying to find them. As you can see the boat was over trimmed and the tabs where too high which caused the boat to try a "GAINER". There were 3 of us in the boat. I was in the passenger seat and the other passenger was standing between the front seats (he hit the side of the boat so hard it broke his leg instantly). I hit the windshield with me knees on the way out and hit the water backwards at full speed (70mph). The driver was on the low side and the water scooped him out as well. Luckily we all ended up outside the boat because it stayed upside down for about 5-10 minutes before the heavy 502s started pulling it down perpendicular to the surface. The boat was about to disappear into 50 of water when a nearby houseboat tied a rope to the last few feet of visible bow and dragged the boat to shallow water where is sank. Mark



Hes a real cool guy to furnish us guys wondering with this info on the accident.

could help us all not see the same fate.

That is on my home lake with my boating club. Everytime someone asks what kind of boat I have I get to hear all about the accident again. Kind of annoying cause everybody around here thinks that Sutphens are unsafe because of it. People that know better know they are great boats but the people who know little and know about the accident give me $hit all the time.

After the radar run every year they would head back to where it started and the radar boat (usually a big cruiser or house boat) would run back on half plane. Someone would be videoing the boats on their way home jumping its wake. Needless to say, after that year they did not do it anymore.

That cant help sell sutphens on the lake thats for sure.

What crappy luck it could happen to any boat

Yeah, but how many Top Gun's have ended up in the trees?

Tickfaw 200....sort off.....a few years back...

The bottom line is, don't let anyone run your boat at speed.

:party-smiley-004:

with the wrong driver, wrong conditions, or just crap luck, any boat can be a "bad" boat

If something broke it would be bad luck.

The rest is up to who is in control of the boat.

luckystrike, thats harsh statement.

I mean how many times have we seen profesional boat racers turn them upside down or stuff them.

Those guys, I am sure are some good drivers but even they have the bad luck bug hit them.

No ones perfect.

So in my opinion even the best can likely have bad luck without breaking any parts.

Of course I am a novice so I could be wrong.

I still have trouble with chine walk.LOL

The driver of this particular Sutphen also drove the Heartbeat/ Smartmoney Fountain for several years.

heres an updated video from the owner.
Really cool guy and he has alot more of the carnage on tape but this is pretty bad for any sutphen owner or any boater for that matter.

Its amazing how fast she turns and starts to go down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQs9t...&feature=email

so sad to see, i cant believe how that boat went over light that, a boat that size with such a great hull i just dont get it. and it doesnt look like anything went wrong, just looks like the boat was a rag doll against that small wave. sad. any new pics of the boat restored?

I'll ask him what happened afterwards