I Went Through Hull In My Seat

[shane12966]

Has any body heard of any one else going through the bottom of a race boat or any boat. I was a passenger in the front and we went over a wake would have been only about 3 feet wake of a 30 ft searay the driver of my boat powered right of has we got to the wake we were going about 40 mph we went over the wake and the front of the boat went up and then we slapped down my left foot hit the foot rest hard and it had pushed it through the hull because i looked at my foot after we landed and a saw water bubbling at my feet and then i was looking up at bits of the boat and then it was gone killing bob behind me and nearly killing the driver and i brock my neck and ribs and had to get a plate put in my neck
has any one ever heard of this happening before please let me know as i am suing the boat builder and would love some more experts to come on board
<mod note: thread posted in 2008; removed company name February 2011; new owner>

[alan white]

Believe it or not, I got through your comment. The title actually attracted my attention first. It's truly unique.
Did you get into a boat designed to race by choice and then proceed to go fast? Did this happen in a race? Was it home-built? Why would anyone slam their foot down hard if there's no need to do so? Did the owner pay the boatbuilder to "Make it 100 lbs lighter no matter what you have to do!!"
etc..

Alan

[shane12966]

it was built for racing kavlar the owner had one race in it he had only used the boat all up about 20 hrs in the 3 years he had it
on the day we were not racing my foot slamed down on foot rest because the driver of the boat had taken his foot of the power when we went up on the wake at 40 mph and the boat slapped down so did my foot onto the fooyt rest because the boat was so weak it pushed the rest through the hull then the wat done the rest and riped the bottom with me in my seat so i hit the water at about 35 mph

[alan white]

Wow. That had to be painful.

[shane12966]

Yes It Was Have You Heard Of This Happening Before Because I Have Search The Net And Not Found Any Thing Like This These Boat Builders Didnt Know What They Were Doing Tryed To Make It Lite By Not Weting Out With Resin I Can Punch My Fist Through The Hull Thats How Weak It Is And They Killed A Good Man With 6 Kids Then Framed The Driver Saying He Was Speeding And Lost Control What Lots Of Money Buys Wheres Doing The Right Thing Gone In This World A Man Died For Crying Outand They Have Made Hundreds Of Boats How Can They Get Away With This Does Not Look Good For All The Great Boat Builders Out There

[the1much]

through the deck AND the hull?

[PAR]

I fell from a mast I was repairing and went through the gunnels and bottom of a dinghy another guy was using to paint the boot with. I mean clean through, actually getting stuck in the mud bottom and two guys jumped in, to pull me out. I spent 3 weeks in the hospital 6 days of which I had no feeling from my chest down. So, yep, I'm suggesting you can survive, depending on where the crown jewels were dangling, when you made contact, etc. I still have dents in my head where they had the traction pins.

[the1much]

dents,,ya,,,sure,,,,, just like my kids saying,," dad, your staples are talking to ya",,hehe ,,i fell off a dock 1 time and went bout 5' into the mud,,,,took the guys forever to get me out,,,,mostly cause they were laughing so damned hard,,haha

[shane12966]

the seat was mounted straight onto the hull the water pressure at 40 mph on the foot rest that i had push out the side of the boat ripped the bottom of the hull where the seat was mounted like a can opener and the boat stopped dead and went straight down like a subumarine all took about 3 s
the guy sitting behind me was about 5 metres away up right treading water and the driver was no where to be seen then i saw about 3 metres down below me a his blue jumper so i went down and pulled him up was not breathing and he was full of water like a ballon so then the back seat of the boat was floating next to me so i put one arm on th seat and put my other arm around is tummy and pulled in with every thing i had water poored out of his mouth and he started to breath again

[Willallison]

Shane
First let me say I'm sorry to hear of your experiences.
<mod note: removed company name February 2011 due to request from new owner> have been around a long time and I have to say that this is the first story that I've heard about their boat not being well built. There are a couple racing here (Tassie) locally that are probably at least 15 years old.
I can share a similar story, however (thankfully not mine) about a boat built by another quite well known Oz builder. This was a brand new boat, built light using kevlar: much the same as you describe. The owner is a very experienced powerboat racer. They hit a very small boat wake whilst testing - probably only 6 - 8 inches high - at about 80 mph. The boat completely disintegrated. Incredibly neither driver nor passenger were killed, though both sustained some pretty serious injuries. They too took legal action against the builder, though I'm not too sure how it all finished up.

mm, bad news But may I suggest , that if you enter into corrospondence with the builder, or in fact anybody, you either get someone to write your letters for you, or, you write into WORD and then correct your grammer and spelling
if you do not, you will never be taken seriously
Cheers

[shane12966]

Originally Posted by Willallison

Shane
First let me say I'm sorry to hear of your experiences.
<mod note: removed company name February 2011 due to request from new owner> have been around a long time and I have to say that this is the first story that I've heard about their boat not being well built. There are a couple racing here (Tassie) locally that are probably at least 15 years old.
I can share a similar story, however (thankfully not mine) about a boat built by another quite well known Oz builder. This was a brand new boat, built light using kevlar: much the same as you describe. The owner is a very experienced powerboat racer. They hit a very small boat wake whilst testing - probably only 6 - 8 inches high - at about 80 mph. The boat completely disintegrated. Incredibly neither driver nor passenger were killed, though both sustained some pretty serious injuries. They too took legal action against the builder, though I'm not too sure how it all finished up.

can you please give me details of the power boat racer so i can contact him it would be great to talk to him thankyou from Shane

[shane12966]

Sorry for my spelling it was very late last night when i posted this thread and i was very tired and had taken a few pain killers so sorry to everyone
thanks from Shane