mtfoyre
Seaman Apprentice
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2006
- Messages
- 42
It's really his SHT, but since it was on my boat I guess I vicariously get to take some of the credit for this.
I was out on Lake Pleasant, AZ with my 2 kids (16 y/o son - 7 y/o daughter), a friend and his fiance. We went out for some tubing and whatever else sounded fun.
My son is pretty good at staying on the tube. I try to make it challenging by being more aggressive with the lines I take and such.
Well, my friend Jason asked if he could drive. He hasn't driven the boat before, but the area we were in was pretty empty and seemed the best place to let him try. My son was still out on the tube.
I should clarify - this boat is old and has a tendency to turn MUCH sharper to port.
So after getting the boat fired up, explaining to my buddy what he should/shouldn't do (and mentioning the port steering thing) I let him pull out the slack in the line and get to it. I was next to him watching for traffic and keeping an eye on my son. After a couple minutes my buddy tries to get a little more aggressive and cuts the boat left......way too hard.
It digs the hull in, does a 180 on a dime and starts back towards my son! I immediately react and reach for the key but we're still tossing a little and I miss the first time. After recovering and shutting the boat down I see my son looking up at us; not 20 feet away.
I don't think he saw what happened. He didn't seem phased at all. Whereas my buddy and I were all wobbly-legged from the adventure.
I didn't have to say anything. Jason said it first; "I don't want to drive the boat again". Good, because you aren't going to!
I was out on Lake Pleasant, AZ with my 2 kids (16 y/o son - 7 y/o daughter), a friend and his fiance. We went out for some tubing and whatever else sounded fun.
My son is pretty good at staying on the tube. I try to make it challenging by being more aggressive with the lines I take and such.
Well, my friend Jason asked if he could drive. He hasn't driven the boat before, but the area we were in was pretty empty and seemed the best place to let him try. My son was still out on the tube.
I should clarify - this boat is old and has a tendency to turn MUCH sharper to port.
So after getting the boat fired up, explaining to my buddy what he should/shouldn't do (and mentioning the port steering thing) I let him pull out the slack in the line and get to it. I was next to him watching for traffic and keeping an eye on my son. After a couple minutes my buddy tries to get a little more aggressive and cuts the boat left......way too hard.
It digs the hull in, does a 180 on a dime and starts back towards my son! I immediately react and reach for the key but we're still tossing a little and I miss the first time. After recovering and shutting the boat down I see my son looking up at us; not 20 feet away.
I don't think he saw what happened. He didn't seem phased at all. Whereas my buddy and I were all wobbly-legged from the adventure.
I didn't have to say anything. Jason said it first; "I don't want to drive the boat again". Good, because you aren't going to!
