At one minute and thirty seconds into this video, 'Billy Bob' proves it's not the crash that will kill you. It's the sudden STOP... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UEETjztLqI
When jumping boat a wake, you might become the guest of honor at your own wake... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQs9tloTzTM&feature=related
Enough amateur action. Let's get to the pro's... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oBr8bHuZ1k&feature=fvw
Someone I was teaching this week was surprised to hear that these boats can flip. So for any who still don't get it: When a boat leave contact with the water it becomes a missle or airplane which don't fly too well without wings or stablizing fins as a general rule. Good vids.
Can't quite make out the brand on that bass boat, but the Mod-VP hull is NOT a rough water hull form, and bass boats are not wake jumpers! I've got an all-Kevlar Allison that has scared the sh!t out of me more times than I care to count, always when the chop comes up a little too much and I end up in any kind of following sea. Coming off a wake like that is begging for disaster. As for the second clip, it only took one glance to know it was a Sutphen. My old man used to race against Richie when he was still up north, and we had one of Richie's 33 Outrageous hulls. You have to screw up really badly to flip one of his boats. Looked like they hit the wave while turning, then chopped the throttle and hooked the wheel in the air. That's inexperience + stupidity * horsepower. Bad equation right there. The people filming or one of the other boats should have gotten a line on that bow while it was still floating and dragged the **** thing to the nearest beach. Still, the strength of that hull shows - no deck separation, didn't even pop the Bomars. My old man gave up racing the tunnels back when us kids were born. His last one was a Sid-Son with a Tower of Power. There was a race my dad was supposed to be in but my mom was in the hospital giving birth; a friend of his blew over during the race and survived, but the guy's watch stopped at the exact minute my oldest brother was born. My dad put the boat in the garage, de-rigged it to close the door, and never ran it again. It was all go-fasts to fit the whole family from that point on.
They fly a little TOO well - far more lift than downforce! The little pad-hull V's do love to chine walk. That's a pucker moment you'll never feel at 20kts.
