d-lo

done something silly on the water, that has ended up in a not so fun situation? ie, runaway boat, mindless driver error, etc.

ok, i'll start:

i threw my vegas in with a good toss at a high idle, only to have forgotten the ever important ritual of the 'radio check', because i was trying to get it on the action with friends at the same time.....TWICE. first time, she went all the way across the lagoon, (several hundred feet easy, could barely see it hit the shore.....) and hit the rocks, i thought it would die, but no, it just ran and ran and ran at a high idle until i could hike over to get it. about 5 or 6 minutes. she was warm, not too much hull damage, but man, how embarrassing. then, i did it again the next week, this time the water gods were with me, it did a shallow half circle, and ended up hitting the shore gently, 50 feet away............

i have fail safes, learned that one from watching a friends miss elam hit the shore at full throttle, due to signal failure, and no failsafe. i have one in every boat......but they sure work alot better IF YOU TURN THE RECEIVER ON.[:@]

let's see, i'll leave out the part about when i tossed my miss bud into the water, where it was shallow, and i broke the whole rudder and mount off on a rock on launch.........


ok, your turn!

davey




ps to the mods, move this wherever if you seem fit, might be better in the general discussion, your call.............

nothinbetr2do

never nothing like that(knock on wood) but some how i manage to get upside down every time[:@] and i mean every time. not a big deal, but still a pain. i'm running a thundercat 31, i just go out and get it and drain the hull and remove the plug and turn over the motor to get any water out. then i check electronic box for leaks and if none i'm off and running again. i'm not to sure if this is right ,but it's fun. just pushing it to far i guess

piper_chuck

My Feedback: (12)

I'll fess up to missing two heats, 40 mono and open offshore, at a club race trying to get an engine started. Not long after the no launch sounded for the second missed heat I finally figured out that my starter was still hooked up for my tunnel, ie backwards. From then on, I ALWAYS have two starters at the table, one for tunnels and one for the inboards.

dicko

not in boats, but in a buggy race I have tried in vain to start a buggy for a race. tried everything. couldn't work out why it wouldn't start. maybe it had something to do with not putting the fuel line back on after i'd done a clutch bell swap[:@].

toyotatruckin

LOL Ok I was at a race a few years ago (offroad) and I died on track due to not re-fueling after the last heat i had run...

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

How much time have you got?
I've seen the "forgot to turn on the RX" trick too many times but fortunately not me but once for a guy that I wasp pitting for at a Chicago area race.
Let's see.......... I had a little DPI electric boat that had an inline rudder and when I did a prop swap forgot to put the rudder back on. Luckily all I had to do was wait a few minutes for the wind to turn it back towards shore.
Done the forgot to swap the starter wires around stunt also. I don't tihnk that anyone who has owned inboards and outboards at the same time hasn't pulled that one off at least once.
On a 7.5 OB tunnel noticed a little green wire sticking out of the bag that the RX was in and didn't think any more about it until I launched the boat with my son driving it and he lost radio contact. The boat went across the pond, missing the channel to the river, jumped the embankment and landed on the other side. That's when I found out that rivers move faster than they look.
The little piece of green wire was the antenna that accidentally got cut off when I removed the excess zip-tie around the bag.
Enough embarrassment for now........

savageguy25

well there we were at the pond my budy was runnin his 3.5 tunnel i took along my elec. cargo ship (old neptune) to use as a retreiver well his was blasting around the edge of the lake when all the sudden he went screaming by me and i guess he hit a turtle but the left sponson dug in spun the boat and smacked my neptune cuasing somthin in mine and his recievers to screw up leaving both boats doin circle colliding untill the fual on his tunnel was gone lol so we both left the pond with beat up almost sunk boats .............oh and the day before he fer got to turn on his radio ive never seen a tunnel jump a bank go 20 foot in the air and fly down a 20 foot high dam before ........................all i got was a ruined cheap boat so i guess i come out lucky oh and i to started up my savage and accidently turned off my radio and watched it scream across the yard into a tree luckly there was no damage though

fmimages

Hey I was there for the misfortune, but you should have seen me when I was into motorcycle racing. At one motocross event I tried to jump the start, but broke a chain and felt silly not even going 50 feet. Another time I was in an enduro and somewhere in the first pack and didn't realize that I was getting water into my front brakes so here comes one turn and down the ravine I went, before the first lap was completed. It was so slippery that I couldn't even stand up. And still another time I was doing my morning practice run at an unfamiliar track and thought I was getting to know it (ie. all the corners turned right for example). The next one corner that I thought I would steam roll through went the other direction and I sailed over the enbankment sliding to a stop, amongst the rocks. Now I do only video and put around with the nitro boat hobby.

f16man

My son forgot to pull the transmitter ant. out on his vegas and made a half a lap and started yelling at me about no control I looked over and saw the ant. down but by the time I could blurt it out of my mouth it was in the rocks, our buddy that was with us just had to chime in with [ ah the school of hard rocks] he he.

ralph289

One time was running with a few other guys and mine any another guy had RED boats, needless to say after a lap or two I had my eye on the WRONG red boat, thought I was doing great as my boat went into the weeds [:@]
Ralph

goldendesign04

in my excitement to get my sv27 into the water for the first time I forgot to put the radio box cover on ripping right along till it submarined...Now I live right near the bay in safety harbour ( the big bay on the map is called Tampa Bay hence the name) lost radio contact boat goes WOT straight out I have a retrieval boat but was doing the math in my head full tank of fuel 30+ mph no way could I paddle out into the ocean to retrieve it... as I watch it getting further an further from shore an out of my reach I see it heading fot a pylon about 600 yards in the water (electric line crosses the bay) it doesnt hit as so much as skins the pole forcing it to turn darn near full 180 an come to a stop about 10ft out an maybe 30ft north of were I was safe it to say I counted myself lucky to only need new electrics an not a new boat! Also got a racing one for you in the winters oh so many years ago in Michigan on Lake St Clair we did run what ya brung oval racing on the ice I was on my 600 artic cat snowmobile lost control on a turn at about 70 flipped off the sled an slid on the ice for a few hundred yards only to be stopped when I hit the back tire of the ambulance that had stopped to watch! Luckly nothing broke nor bruised except my pride

-Wayne

4X4FABGUY

I had just finished recovering my flipped hydro in an 8ft row boat and when I return to shore my friend is fumbling to get his air boat started so I beach the row boat and go to help my friend start his boat, This took some time and some waves must have come up and pushed the row boat back into the water. We both see it just as I launch his boat and a light breeze has pushed it about 15 ft from shore, so I quickly grab the air hose from the back of my truck, which has an on board air compressor, and chuck it at the row boat, right on, a direct hit so I begin to pull it back to shore and the hose slips off, bummer. And its drifting away pretty fast now and out of reach to try the hose again. So my friend and I think why not push it in with his air boat thats all ready in the water running, so he lines it up at the back and starts pushing it in. Great its working we think, they are getting closer and about twenty feet out and his boat slips off and busts off his prop, real bummer, now we have two dead boats and no way to get them but swim and its not swimming season. But I had to strip to my underwear and swim out to the boat I brought to keep me from swimming. Very cold and not a good way to end my day of boating. But it was a good lesson learned. I now have an anchor on shore securing the row boat.

Sean Bowf

My daughter is racing, and I am pitting for her. She had come away from the first day (three heats) in first place by about 100 points. The fourth heat (first heat on sunday), we get her boat started and she heads for the drivers stand. I go chuck her boat in the water and get moving toward the drivers stand. As I get there, I see her still looking down toward the pit area. Her boat is stuck in the cat tails just past the pit area, because she had forgot to pull the antenna up on her transmitter. She tries reving it a couple times, but one of the weeds just wraps around her props and kills her engine. She finished second (if I remember right) for the day after five heats.

Sean

GRANT ED

This happens a fair bit. I have seen more than one person miss a heat because they could not start their buggy after failing to refuel after the heat before.

007clint

Sean - brings to mind the time when I re-greased my driveshaft to try to get that little edge to catch you in the next heat and then got distracted and didn't tighten the driveshaft coupler. After launch, of course, I could rev it all I wanted - to no avail! [sm=stupid.gif]

But the worst was when I was testing and tuning all by myself on a deserted pond with 20mph winds and flipped my hydro when I turned into the wind. I got into my inflatable raft, paddled out to the hydro, placed it on the back, and started paddling toward shore. I wasn't making much headway because of the wind and then started loosing ground. After quite a while, I noticed that I was even farther out than when I had picked up the hydro AND I was sinking! My perfectly sharpened turnfin, rudder, and prop had sliced nice big holes in my inflatable. Exhausted from paddling, I just laid down in the almost fully deflated raft and let the high wind blow me to the other side. It took about 20 minutes and I probably looked like a floating body from the shore but no one was there to see my stupidity or worry about the dead guy floating in the pond!

Darkseacret

i was hand launching my 51" homie with the trx. in my left hand ,as i blipped to half thottle or so i gave it a good toss and my hand brushed my leg opening the battery case and releasing 4 aa's for a afternoon swim. i watched her move away in a sweeping left turn turn to harpoon my neighbors 2 ft. vynl lattice fence , it them sang at half thottle or so till i could paddle down and kill motor with smothering the velocity stack. a fail safe sure is better than that afternoon show and dance