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View Full Version : Anyone have any bent boat photos



Sagbay32
12-10-2001, 10:22 PM
Seeing Tony's post got me to thinking...I bet there are some interesting accident/Crash photos out there.

Anybody got any?
Non gory please. Don't want to offend anyone.

RickSE
12-11-2001, 11:58 AM
I wish I had a picture of this but don't. My dad just told me about a guy who got ejected from his 45ZX at Lake of the Ozarks. He apparently was not wearing his lanyard and the boat continued on without him. The boat ended up going on shore, crashing through a wall. Donzislsman, do you know anything about this? Isn't it in your neck of the woods.

Here's, boat that burned on Lake Mead. Here's the story. Credit to Arizona Hot Boat Assoc. http://209.235.93.131/home.html

"Claudia had never riden in a low profile jet boat before, and was a bit nervous in this fast sleek ride. Debi was having a ball chasing around the ducks all over the bay. The boat was running great untill they heard a loud pop! The engine started running rough and Debi shut it down. Looking around and realizing they were all alone and too far away to get our attention, they decided to start it back up and drive to shore. Smoke started coming out of the gunnels and they realized they were on fire. They waved down a Wave Runner who came over and yelled for them to get out of the boat, they handed him the baby. He lost balance and over they went, tossing the baby into the water, his life vest in Debi's boat back on shore. The three girls jumped in the water after the baby, not taking a vest or cushion with them. Finally with all of them holding on to the Wave Runner, they moved away from the boat as flames flared up. It wasn't too long after, we arrived in our boats and pulled everyone from the water. Very thankfull no one was hurt. Watching the boat burn was terrible, but we almost didn't care, our loved ones were safe. The local Park Ranger came out and with an anchor chain, towed the boat in the shallows. It sank in ten feet of water. We did the neccessary reports and called the insurance company. The boat would have to be removed from the lake.

Not wanting Mike to get hit with a $5000.00 recovery bill which would come right off his insurance settlement, we decided to recover the boat ourselves. The next day, we dove down to the boat and treaded ropes thru the bow and stern eyes.

Tying the sern eyes to the stern eyes on my Formula and the bow eye to the stern eyes on Jeff's Mirage, we lifted the boat slightly and moved it. We lost it once, in about twenty feet of water, when the stern eyes pulled out of the burned fiberglass. We retied the ropes around the jet drive. It was about a half mile to a spot we could back the trailer down and between the trailer winch and a four wheel drive Chevy, pull the boat onto the trailer.
As near as we could tell, the fire started when a cracked spark plug blew out the center, dumping fuel into the bildge. The fumes then ignited when they started the boat back up."

http://209.235.93.131/adventures/storypics/crusader4.jpg
http://209.235.93.131/adventures/storypics/crusader9.jpg

Sam
12-11-2001, 05:22 PM
Mike, I like your idea about bent boat pic's. I was actualy thinking today about a posting area just for interesting boat pic's, like bent boats ect.

Harbor Master, since it's your candy store what do you think about an area for interesting boat pic's.

Sam

Gearhead99
12-11-2001, 07:27 PM
Glad to hear everyone is OK. What a story.

Very scary.

mikev
12-12-2001, 08:22 AM
after reading this I am realy thinking about putting a lanyard in my boat how easy is it to retrofit one to my 88 v6 i/o?

donzislsman
12-12-2001, 08:34 AM
RickS,

Hello. I just read your post on my way to a sales training meeting for most of the day, but when I get back I will tell you the story on our 45ZX customer. The good news is he hardly had a scratch on him, the bad news the boat is not that good looking anymore. I will post some pics later.

Barry :cool:

donzislsman
12-12-2001, 02:14 PM
All right guys, here you go. Tim if you are reading this I am sorry for breaking my silence and telling everyone what happened to your boat. We had just sold our first 45ZX to Tim, he had taken delivery about a month and half prior to the accident, and he was down here at the lake testing out some new 30" props we ordered in for him. Came down all by himself and was out on the water alone. Headed towards the dam when suddenly the boat dove hard to the left and ejected him from the vessel. Come to find out later he hit something with his outside drive and ripped it off causing the boat to dive that hard. Since he wasn't wearing his lanyard, a valuable lesson to be learned by all, the boat continued to go on its own. At first the boat turned and headed back towards the owner, he was treading water in about 60 degree water temp. It, the boat, then turned again suddenly and headed towards a cove from the main channel. While in the cove the boat at first was headed towards a row of docks, but then turned one last time and headed straight across the cove eventually running through a sea wall, breaking the sea wall, and lodging half of the boat up on shore. When we arrived at the scene the boat was half in the water half out. We quickly jumped in the boat and after getting the ok from the water patrol we fired the boat up and idled back to our marina. Amazingly when we got in the boat it slid off the shore and was floating in the water. The side the drive was on that was ripped off would not start, obviously, so we idled back on two engines. The boat was brought back to Lake Port and put on our lift in our shop to determine the damage. Amazingly the boat is not in that bad of shape. You would think the front of the boat after hitting a sea wall at 70mph would be smashed and as you will see in the pics it is not that bad at all. It sure was a testiment to us and everyone involved that the construction of a Donzi is second to none. I can safely say there are many manufacturers products that would have crumbled if put through what this boat was. Sorry about the long story just wanted to make sure the actual story was told to everyone so all the rumors can stop, not so much here as on other web sites. The only thing that sucks in this whole deal other than the fact a beautiful boat is damaged is how frustrating it was to us that Tim did not wear his lanyard. The first thing that our delivery captians say and do on a delivery of a new boat is to put on and discuss the benefits of your lanyard. A lot of issues could of been solved if his lanyard was attached, but I guess we all learn from our mistakes.

For whatever reason I am having problems finding the disk with the pics on it, so I wll post them soon.

Thanks
Barry :)

harbormaster
12-12-2001, 07:50 PM
Sam,
Man you newbies.....
I asked for what I coined "Splash and burn" photos about a year and a half ago and got about 5 pictures. Do you want a new section built?

Sagbay32
12-12-2001, 08:10 PM
I do. :D

Sam
12-12-2001, 08:53 PM
Scott, I can't speak to what did or did not happen a year ago, I was not a Registry member. I was just thinking it might be interesting to see what kind of pic's are out there. In my opinion they don't have to be just "bent boats" although they are intersting. They could be ugly, interesting, home made boats ect. I have a few I can post as soon as I figure that out. How about hearing from some of you other guy's, what do you think?

Sam

RickSE
12-13-2001, 10:29 AM
Wow, Donzislsman & Tim that's a wild story. Thanks for telling us the story, Donzislsman. Sounds like Tim is physically OK. It must have been painful to be floating in the water watching that boat continue on.

Sorry if let the cat out of the bag, but I think this is a positive story. It emphasizes the importance of wearing a lanyard and it's a testament to the quality of Donzi's boats. Donzi builds a great boat, I wish more people would realize this. We had a similar situation here a few years ago. A gal got tossed from a brand new 38' Nordic and the boat went on shore. I saw the pictures after, it was torn up pretty bad. The boat had lost about 5 feet of the bow, split the hull and deck and tore up both drives.

PaulO
12-13-2001, 10:56 AM
Now, I am not one to support any further "meddling" from government agencies but, maybe we need a law allowing only "deadman" throttles on powerboats?
Think of the loss of life and property if one of these things hit the shore in the wrong area like a bathing area or marina!
PaulO

boldts
12-13-2001, 06:06 PM
Bought a kill switch about a year after I bought my Donzi. Jumping a houseboat wake, I got bounced out of the boat and hanging on to the grap rail. I was lucky and was able to pull myself back into the boat and get her shut down. Mercury Marine sells a kill switch that is for outboards, fairly cheap and easy to install. I learned my lesson, I test and wear mine always. :)