Lee tunnel boat blowover, lucky to be alive-selling.

[d&smach]

I'll be the first to admit I really did a stupid thing. I took a Lee tunnel out for a short ride on the river, never even told anybody I was going. The tunnel had a mild 2.5 with a speedmaster. I had a trim indicator and it was set below the half-way point, slightly tucked under. I gradually increased speed with my thumbs on the down trim rocker switch and a recovered and dried gps read 118 mph. The bow almost exploded up, way quicker than I could react, I was on my way to a blowover. All I could do was put my head down with a death grip on the steering wheel and eyes tightly closed. After what seemed like several seconds I felt a heavy jarring that gave me a short lived headache. I opened my eyes to see the boat upright in the water, cowl gone and a broken loose gas tank leaking. I wasn't even wet with only a very tiny bruise on my ankle. After securing the leaking gas tank and using my shirt as a sponge to remove the gas fire hazard, I called a friend to come and tow me back. It was just over an hour before he arrived and not one other boat ever came by in that time.
I have to give up on this boat and couldn't even sell it unless the person could REALLY convince me that he knew what he was doing. Possibly even a much smaller and slower engine. I'll destroy the boat myself before I sell it and hear later the buyer died in it. I even find it difficult to watch tunnel boat racing on TV with the boats trimmed to a fraction of an inch from going over. There is a picture of the boat a couple of threads back I posted about trimming a 2.5. It is the red, green and white boat, now shrink wrapped in my yard. Just in case I don't come across as stupid enough, I was wearing the wrong extra bulky life jacket and no helmet.

[rock]

Sorry to hear. I know it happens fast. Glad you are OK.

Rock

[CUDA]

So, did you check the boat over to see if something came loose?

Could those steering cable clamps have slipped?

I would call Shaun Torrente at 230 610 5315 and ask him.

But something had to give for a boat to feel fine and then pop up?

with negative trim,

The first time I ran the cable steering. I lowered the motor because It was the ST Louis race

Lots of boats on a short course, I did not realize It made the steering loose till I was being back in the water for a race, I should have

fixed it but I was a new racer and told myself I'll just take it easy, that was a mistake.

[Mark Poole ModVP]

Most all modern F1 tunnels are not intended to be run wide open trimmed down. But it depends on the way the builder designs them. The first DAC's that were built ran loose with the engine level or slightly negative. One possibility is that the tunnel pressurized forward of the CG and lifted against the prop holding the boat down. That might explain why it went over so fast.

[LakeFever]

Thanks for sharing your harrowing experience. Most of us know how fast things go wrong. The movie
called “formula one the killer years” has a great interview with Jackie Stewart and he says; speed doesn’t exist until you crash.

That made perfect sense to me. Had some crashes that happened so fast i didnt even know what was happening it was all a blur. Had some that were ultra slow motion. I guess it was the adrenaline spike that caused this.

also it speaks highly of your character in your stance regarding selling the hull. Hopefully this thread helps us stay a bit frosty and more cautious. It has my attention thats for sure

[d&smach]

So, did you check the boat over to see if something came loose?

Could those steering cable clamps have slipped?

I would call Shaun Torrente at 230 610 5315 and ask him.

But something had to give for a boat to feel fine and then pop up?

with negative trim,

The first time I ran the cable steering. I lowered the motor because It was the ST Louis race

Lots of boats on a short course, I did not realize It made the steering loose till I was being back in the water for a race, I should have

fixed it but I was a new racer and told myself I'll just take it easy, that was a mistake.

Small world! I actually never met Shaun but I bought two 2.5












mercs from him. Cast iron bore that met the rules for a certain class that didn't allow nicacell. (sp?)

[d&smach]

So, did you check the boat over to see if something came loose?

Could those steering cable clamps have slipped?

I would call Shaun Torrente at 230 610 5315 and ask him.

But something had to give for a boat to feel fine and then pop up?

with negative trim,

The first time I ran the cable steering. I lowered the motor because It was the ST Louis race

Lots of boats on a short course, I did not realize It made the steering loose till I was being back in the water for a race, I should have

fixed it but I was a new racer and told myself I'll just take it easy, that was a mistake.

The steering was still tight but one possibility, I was driving downstream in the river and was just entering the lake when it happened. There was light breeze and almost flat water on both but I was just entering a very different body of water, no current and the sandbar as I was entering the lake the was plenty deep for the prop but the depth quickly changed from about ten feet to three feet deep.

[Tcatrett]

WOW! Thats scary. Glad you okay. The water dept change could have caused this. We had a similar situation at a race site once.

[CUDA]

Same here at the Fl Panhandle race, you could see ripples on the water in one area

I was racing Andy Driver, we were side by side perfectly matched and we hit a patch that was tough to

describe, I lightly tagged the down trim, and Andy drove away...

We pitted next to each other, and I asked him what It felt like to him

He said he was so scared his A-hole puckered UP

But he didn't touch the trim and won...