Two hurt at Texas Roundup...

[roadtrip se]

After a great day crushing waves on the channels of the St. Clair River, I got the disturbing call from Jill at PK.

Don't have all the specifics, but the gist is that an 18 Barrelback driven by Cig and passenger, Tmann, hit a cruiser wake and launched the boat vertical. The landing was not gentle.

Sounds like everybody, including Mike Flowers from Extreme Marine, pitched in, got these two to shore, and quickly to a hospital.

Both are okay, but banged up pretty good with broken ribs, some other fractures, and bruised cartlidge. Could have been much, much worse.

I love the speed of these boats, but things happen pretty fast out there, even in a vintage 60 mph Classic. These injuries are pretty typical for a go fast accident. A life perserver could have helped protect both and maybe even prevented these injuries.

Glad, they're both okay, but defintely something to think about....

Todd

[JimG]

As soon as anyone gets details (hospital, condition, etc), please post!

We're there for ya, Phil! Let us know if there is anything we can do...

JimG

[DonCig]

All three of the accident participants are walking and talking as of Sunday a.m.
Yes, 3 participants!
Of the three living things riding in the boat at the time of the accident, the one that had the least amount of bruising was Cigs dog, Mollie. Mollie came thru the ordeal in great shape. The two old dogs on the other hand have enough bruises and cracked ribs to keep popping pain pills for a few more days.

By the way, the boat is in fine condition, but it needs a new passenger seat pedastal, seems the old one snapped on landing.
Reminds me of the old pilots moto: " any good landing is the one that you can walk away from!"


Another Donzi story has been placed in the registry for all to read.

[Brad Lyon]

Don't forget the most important pilots motto:

There are old pilots, there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold, pilots.

Keep that in mind Jamie, Donzi's are boats not airplanes........

Brad

[Rootsy]

whaaaat??? i've never been seriously airborne! at least not in a high speed showboat fashion... i like my drive too much to do that... i've never been on a steep incline in the air either...

Rootsy - mr sane and MOST of the time, dry...

glad no one was injured at PK... thank god himself.

[Darrell]

It was TMANN's brother that was riding in the barrelback, TMANN was in the boat behind me and was not hurt. Johnny suffered broken ribs and a craked pelvis according to what they told him at the E/R in Graham, he told me he was going to get checked out by his doctor when he got home.

Hats off to the folks at the PK Westside EMS, they were waiting at the dock for me, and it was only 3-4 miles away and we were cruising @ 50 mph. They were extremly fast for a volenteer service. Mark and Polly were 1st to provide aid to Cig and Johnny and they helped load him in my boat. We made the decision to transport him in my boat for the smooth ride of the 26, and it's good to have a mom (Janet,his new lake mom) to hold you when you are hurting.

Our prayers go out to Johnny,Cig, and TMANN, I hope everyone has a speedy recovery.

Darrell

P.S. Molly was a little stress out that night but I think she is going fine. :D

[Team Jefe]

Johnny was in good spirits on the trip home. He was doing better than I would have done. Looks like he'll be OK in a few weeks.

Tmann's other casualty, his right front wheel bearing made it home just fine after FarmerTx's expert rebuild. Damn, Mark between your trailer repair skills and cooking, you'd make someone an excellent wife (although you may need to shave your goatee for those more intimate duties :D )

http://www.donzi.net/photos/tmannbearing.jpg

<small>[ September 29, 2003, 12:51 PM: Message edited by: Harbormaster ]</small>

[TMANN]

Jefe, That picture is ruff... No you are right Mark rocks!!!! Thanks again FarmerTX and Jefe for helping me. They were a great help...

Also JimG it was Jon and Sig that was hurt on Sigs boat not me. I dont hurt that easy!!!
Jon was checked out this morning and had three broken ribs a cracked pelvis, busted mouth and a torn shoulder muscle. It’s better than we thought at first because the first doctor said four ribs broken. He is doing fine just trying not to move and resting. Im not sure how Sig is doing hopefully he will let us know... You there Sig?

This was a great trip. Everyone we met are our great friends now. Cant wait till next year. Thanks Scott, Darrel, Mark, Jeff, there better halfs, and everyone else.

:) TMANN

[JimG]

Hope Jon has a quick recovery... sorry that happened, what a bummer!

Our trip to Lake Travis was a ball! And mostly without incident, except for some missing bikini tops and one lost wheel.... he he!! :D

We'll be hangin' with you guys next year!

JimG :D

[Shanghied Again]

I wish him a fast recovery, I have seen many boat accidents and it does make you think when its closer to home, frown

[Hotspare]

TMANN, JON ....... Great meeting you Guy's, sorry about the incident though ....... Glad to hear your planning on coming back next year .... Jon, Take Care and Get Well Soon .... Later, Bruce. :)

[fasttrucker]

Hope everyones ok.We had a couple of guys die here in maryland this month the fishing boat was found grounded,they must have fallen out and drowned.Today when I went out by myself I put my ski vest on.

[harbormaster]

For those of you with older classics, check your aluminum seat posts carefully!

I had spoke with Mark Horne (farmerTx) about the incident. Since I was not there I refrained from speaking until I spoke with folks who had seen it first hand.

Mark said they were only going 50 or so when they hit the wave and launched.

(I hit big waves like that faster and on purpose. :D )

On landing it appears that Sig's seat mount completely snapped off. I looked at it and the weld appears to have broken.

I for the life of me cannot see how he did not lose total control.

I believe that he has been boating since a small kid and I guess instinct kicked in.

ANYWAY the point of this is check the welds on your seat pedastles. It would really suck to have it break wen you need it most.

Oh yeah, and Jon,

You deserve some sort of award for protecting mollie the dog.

[GeneD]

Wow!
Thank Don they all survived!
This is a valuable lesson for us all. We lost one racer this year in an accident and we all agreed that if any one of us ever got into an open cockpit raceboat again, we should have our head examined.
Probably no one has ever seen me get really reckless in my boat except for my close boating buddies in Melbourne, but when ever I was screwing around and I knew it was dangerous, I would put on my ski vest. My thinking behind that was if I was knocked out I didn't want to drown, and at the very least, I wanted my body to be found.
The seat pedestals on my boat are original and are stainless steel, was this changed in later versions or models? The seat sliders are cast aluminum and look to be pretty strong.
One question about the accident: What happened to the boat when everyone was ejected? Was there a kill switch involved?
Again, I'm glad there were no fatalities. And as a soon-to-be medical professional let me tell you that a cracked pelvis is no laughing matter.

[harbormaster]

Gene,
Np one was ejected. They got banged around probably against the gunnels when it landed.\

Close to the same thing happened to Walleye, Mustang Susie, and I when we hit a freak wave at AOTH II.
Susie and I both had busted lips and I bruised my hip. It was a freak incident that had no bearing on Steve's driving skills.

We have fast boats and there is always an element of risk. We all know this.

[farmer tx]

We had just left Hells Gate and the shadows were very long, also running into the sun. I have to admit I didn't see the cruiser go by either, because of the glare and trying to read the water.
Sig caught considerable air off the first roller and stuffed the second one sending the 18 vertical like a rocket. After landing, the boat shot out of the spray at a right angle to starboard, and came to a stop.
I wasn't expecting either Sig or Jon (much less the dog) to still be in the boat. Neither one could breath very well from hitting the dash, luckily there was no windshield involved.
They definitely had something watching over them.
It was a very ugly situation and could have turned out a lot worse.

Like the old saying goes, there is a fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

Later,Mark

[Biskit]

Hi Gang: Guilty as charged. No excuse here, just my recollection. What a great weekend. I was having such a great time. Excellect food. Donzi's from all over. Anyway, Johnny and I were running with the bunch home before it got dark, must have been between 6:30 and 7:00. Boat was trimmed out with outdrive and we had made a turn following lake which faced the sun, which also happened to be right on the horizon. a little bright. Then all of a sudden we hit a mound I never saw but felt and I looked off and down to my right and saw we were traveling thru air and not anywhere close to the water. As we returned to the water at maybe a third mound (these were like ship mounds)the mound caught the right trim tab which flipped the bow down and shifted the lean of the boat from right to left. The impact of the left side of the hull was pretty much a flat slap to the surface of the water and was probably what snapped me 3 1/2 inch seat riser. The nose went under some and we got wet. After my seat had snapped we both were tossed into the left hand corner of the cockpit with the seat following me. It actually bent up the bennet trim tab on the right pretty good. Johnny was a champ in maintaining control of the dog through out the mishap and then tossed him to the floor while we struggled to gasp for air. Johnny's mouth had a hole below his lower lip that was clean through from hitting the dash. My air shortage was short compared to his. His gasping didn't seem to let up for atleast 10 minutes. Mark and Polly got to us first. We tranfered Johnny to the smoothest ride avail.(26' Donzi) and on the way back later Mark said they saw the nose of the boat sticking up out of some major spray and then watched the boat disappear in it. Polly thought it may have flipped. They also mentioned that my face was white at the time and I had actually been kind of sunburn. It happened fast. These mounds were big yet hard to see because of the smooth roll that made them look like the usual top of the water. Behind each mound was a deep pit followed by the next mound. Looking down on one of those pits made you thing you were really high in the air. Anyway, Thank you god for looking after all of us in the boat, Thanks to all the great people with open hearts Molly and I met for the first time, and thanks for insurance. A very special thanks to those that were hands on out there. Those that missed out on the Texas run, you don't know what you missed. Sig

[Digger]

glad to hear everyone is alive, if not well (yet). Heal fast fellas, best of luck on recovery. Chicks dig scars.

[TMANN]

Sig how are you felling? We all hope good. To anyone that does not know he hurt two ribs also. We had a great time with you Saturday and hope to see you again. If you get a chance to bring your boat to Clear Lake you are welcome to stay with us - anytime! Also don’t sell that great barrel back 18!!! You will regret it. You will have more great times than bad ones in that thing. I promise.

TMANN

[Boat_Mon]

Sig,

Great talking with you today! Glad to hear everything is getting better, you should have that cracking in your back checked out!

Honest guys, when I sold it to him, my final words were "....have fun with it, but be careful!"

But in all honesty I really believe you were being responsible. Sh*t happens, and I'm sure glad there were friends there to help you out when you needed it! TAKE CARE!!!!!!

(the AV is no longer in MI)

[Eddie1823]

Hope everyone is OK and recovering from there injuries. I owned a 67 barrel back for over 10 years and they are very good at jumping single cruiser wakes, but when you get into multiple wakes you have to roll them on the side. These are great boats, but just not big enough to handle some of the slop the mongo coctail cruisers throw at them.
Feel better and speedy recovery so you can be speedy in your boat again.