Thread: Please be careful on the water - boat accidents

Originally Posted by wannabe fisherman

No fast boats aren't like cars, CARS HAVE BRAKES, BOATS DON'T and it seems to me that a lot of boaters forget that fact.

Yes, in the aspect that you have to use a little common sense when operating they are.

I launched on Ky Lake this morning before daylight. Not to be the first to my spot, parking is tight and getting stuck behind some guy unloading his life’s treasures into his boat while parked on a one lane ramp is not one of my favorite things.

It was still very dark and I heard a bass tournament take off from a ramp two miles away. Understand Ky Lake is full of trash from foam cups to telephone pole sized timber right now from the flooding. There was a breeze so there was a chop. That chop makes seeing surface clutter almost impossible in good daylight. The tournament was a shotgun start so everybody took off like the Indy 500. The fastest 2 boats went by me no more than 300 yards away without a hint of a bow or stern light In The Dark!! They were both running well over 70 mph. There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in Hadez that either could have seen or avoided a large piece of floating debris or a parked boat without lights.

I instantly thought of the accidents this week. These guys today should have been arrested and their man cards removed. Getting a jump over one’s competitors in a stupid tournament that won’t pay gas money made risking their lives worth it in their pea-sized brains! Doing it in the dark meant those behind you couldn’t see where you were headed.

I witnessed an accident during the 1980 Georgia BASS Federation State Championship on Lake Eufaula. We were held from launching at the appointed time by heavy fog. When we were finally allowed to take off, it was side by side, two at a time. A popular boat then was the HydraSports. Most of them were underpowered in those days and took what seemed like 100 yards to plane off. A friend of mine in an 18 foot HydraSports was waved off by the starters. Directly in front of him was a Bass Tracker. They had 35hp motors then. The guy in the Bass Tracker hit a wave and popped his kill switch directly in front of the HydraSports that was nose up in the sky. No way to see in front. As the HydraSports bow came down, it hit the Bass Tracker directly in the engine cowling! This happened right in front of the tourney directors!! The HydraSports busted the engine cowling and wiped the stern light off the transom of the Bass Tracker.

Take- off was halted until it was certain all involved were OK. They were, just shook up. It could have been much worse.

Those idiots running without lights today would have been sitting ducks if one of them had popped a kill switch with all those boats breathing down their necks and no lights to warn them.

I have zero sympathy for idiots who choose to kill themselves acting stupid. Those who kill others while acting stupid should pay dearly for the rest of their days!


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