Wellcraft V20 Community - EVERYONE PLEASE READ!!!!!

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EVERYONE PLEASE READ!!!!!

Well folks I had the closest call of my 13+ years in boating to loosing someone on Saturday.

I opted to do a little fishing with my buddy from Georgia in his “new” little Hydra sports. We went off the bay and Mobile River area in search of a few fatties. I noticed early in the morning that the steering arm coming from the outboard had pretty severe rust on it. Upon closer inspection I realized it was rusted pretty severely into the metal and decided it would definitely need attention before he used the boat again. I felt pretty confident it would hold up ok for this trip though. We fished on and boated a few fish. We decided to head in for the day so back down river we ran. As we were running a good speed (About 28-30mph) the part gave way and into a full right hand turn we went. My buddy’s son was on the front of the console and went down into the floor against the side wall. He took a few rod holders off on his way down and got pretty beat up and bruised. The boat turned up on its left gunwale enough to take on about 6 inches of water and then plopped back down. My buddy went over board as he was on the left of me standing behind the console. In the heat of action I managed to reach and pull the throttle back to almost neutral. I looked and seen him go under the left side of the still sliding boat. I also (how I did all this so fast Ill never know) flipped the ignition off because he wasn’t wearing the kill switch. He went under right at the rear of the boat so I really feared he had been gotten by the motor. I hung over the side looking for him to resurface. After what seemed like an eternity he finally did and I reached for him, but he was moving too fast and I missed. He is an ok swimmer, but I could tell he was panicked because he mumbled something and starting flailing around as he went back down. I dove in, found him and pulled him to surface. He held on as we swam back to the boat and I drug him aboard. I “armstronged” the motor tiller style and got us over to a safe place to anchor up. We waited on Seatow and got pulled in. My friend and his son cut their trip short and opted out of fishing Sunday too. We contacted a local Lens crafters because he lost his glasses and couldn’t see to drive back to north Georgia. They were very helpful and got him on his way Saturday evening.

I talked to him this morning and his son is beat up and scratched, but ok. He is still pretty shaken at the thought of almost loosing his life had I not been there. It’s also hard for him as a parent to take the fact that his son was in danger due to not properly checking and wearing safety equipment.

Moral of the story: WEAR YOUR KILL SWITCHES AND PFD’s!!! I wear my kill switch most of the time, but rarely wear a PFD while underway. I am an excellent swimmer, diver, etc…., but you just never know. I WILL have mine on from now on and so will anyone else aboard my vessel. I also, since I have plenty of boating experience SHOULD have called the trip off when I seen the damaged part, but I didn’t. It was a valuable lesson learned and I thank the good Lord for it. I will take his warning and boat safer from now on. I hope yall do too!!