accident

[MOPanfisher]

How a boat works can be fairly easily taught, high degree of skill and more importantly knowing when to do things takes experience.  And even thn things can go to crap on a short period of time.  The faster you are moving the faster things go to crap.  There are many locations on every lake that when a combination of factors happen it can go from "hey that guy cut across in front of me" to a close call to tragedy and the difference is seconds.  It is a tragedy for sure that two people lost that their lives, and the driver of that heir he other boat will never be the same.  I have seen and worked too accidents where everything g was fine until suddenly it wasnt, a boat rounds a blind point at the same time you do both cutting it short, a person swimming way too far from land nearing dark, a blacked out boat sitting out on the lake at night, a log that floated into a normally clear lane, the list we as boat drivers have to do out best, and sometime the best of us make mistakes or crap simply happens.  

[tjm]

A swimmer or a kayak can be anywhere, people swim across the English Channel, 20+ miles, and I've seen a kayak ~15 miles off shore in the Atlantic. If you operate a boat or a truck at speeds faster than you can stop from safely, the results are not an accident.

[Devan S.]

8 minutes ago, tjm said:

A swimmer or a kayak can be anywhere, people swim across the English Channel, 20+ miles, and I've seen a kayak ~15 miles off shore in the Atlantic. If you operate a boat or a truck at speeds faster than you can stop from safely, the results are not an accident.

A lot of truth in this.........my closest almost accident was about 1 a.m. and involved a swimmer in the middle of the lake without any means to give away his location. 

 

 

[mixermarkb]

One small thing, that really doesn’t amount to all that much- but I think that dealers that sell high performance bass boats should all be required to spend some seat time with the buyer on the water at delivery. 
 

I can stop my Champ from 70mph plus inside of a few boat lengths, because I was shown how to by a dealer 25 years ago. There aren’t brakes, but there are ways to stop quick, as long as you do it within the limits of your hull design. Lots of folks just don’t spend enough time learning to drive their new toy, at all speeds, and learning how to stop is a key part of driving a boat. 
 

I guess it’s a Macho thing, but not many boat owners are willing to ask for help, and there are learning curves ranging from how deep to put in the trailer to launch and retrieve all the way to how far you need to trim out to get the very most top end out of a given rig, as well as how to trim for turns at various speeds. These are all specific to hull designs, and a good dealer should take the time to educate his clients so they will be around to buy the next boat, and not smeared on a bluff somewhere.

 

plus- we need skills based boating licenses in Missouri. The regulations  just haven’t kept up with the boats as far as power and speed goes. Hell, we have Tri-toons with multiple V8 four strokes running around these days- we need skills based testing and more on the water enforcement, badly. 

[MarkG52]

My wife and I went to the visitation last night and the funeral was at 10:00 this morning. Private, pretty much family only. Ted was a really good dude and well respected. Great turnout at our church for visitation. Just an awful tragedy. His wife had to tell the the other children that Ted and John would not be coming home from their fishing trip but instead they were going to Heaven to see Jesus. Tears filled my eyes as I was typing this but so thankful that Trish had that assurance. I think that is the only thing keeping her from totally losing it right now. Please if you don't mind, keep this family in your prayers for a little while.

[Champ188]

For sure, being certain that loved ones know Jesus as Savior makes death a lot less "final" but still never easy to deal with. Prayers for this family.