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Saw this on the champion site at BBC After talking with a few of my buds who all own Basscats, they told me that the new Pumas and FTDs may have some trouble with spinning out. A couple of the guys said this happend to a BCB pro at the recent BASS at Florida (Niggemeyer). You may want to discuss this one with some of the guys on BCB forum, but I know Rick was thrown out not to long a go and hurt himself pretty bad. Not sure if this had anything to do with it, but safety is always a top priority. Like said on post earlier both are great boats, but I found more that I like about the Champions. Ride and Decide it is 50 grand! Hard to believe!!
Im far from being an expert or a high speed boat racer but, I have owned around 16 bass boats, two of which would GPS 80. I feel fairly sure that I could spin any bass boat out, though I never have. The few times I have heard of a boat spinning out was turning at high speeds and dropping the bow (trimming down) after theyre in the turn. The keel acts as a rudder and bites on the water and the boat does a 180 or 360. I would feel confident in saying that the situation youre referring to was NOT caused by a flaw in the boat. Im sure someone else will enlighten us more on this subject. Glenn
One should always consider the source of this type information, and its inferred meaning or intended harm, and in this case the intention of the original source. Im not only not concerned, but furthermore unimpressed with its origin. As mentioned, this can be said of any true performance hull, and the more lift aquired, the more driver input and uncontrolled conditions may effect the possibility of this happening. Please forgive my rant, D.
Havent heard anything about James, but this could happen with ANY “high performance” bass boat hull. I personally know of two instances that have happened. I am BY NO MEANS a proffessional high speed boat racer. With that being said, the instances that I am familiar with, I know what happened. Both were in a fairly sharp turn and both failed to trim the engine down before going into the turn. As they slowed somewhat for the turn, as mocatt says, the keel drops and bites the water, the back of the boat is still up high and doesnt hold, thus spinning the boat. I have never experienced this, nor do I want to, but I would think that you would need a change of clothes pretty quick, especially your pants, that is if you stayed in the boat.
Any high-performance boat has an element of danger. If you have a loose nut behind the steering wheel, any boat can be made to misbehave, cause injury or even a fatality. Responsible operators can handle any boat safely, because they recognize the danger point and back off before things get out of hand. That said, any boat running 80 MPH will slide across the top of the water in a sharp turn. Turn hard left at high speed, and you start that slide. And now the prop acts like a wheel in the back and it will help that slide accelerate into a full-blown prop blowout and a hard left turn _right now_. One way to avoid this is to not power a boat so that it will break 60. Another way (which a few manufacturers seem to buy in to) is to make their boats so heavy that they plow rather than skim, then you dont have the problem in nearly as severe a fashion. The allisons and bullets are incredibly safe when driven responsibly. They are incredibly dangerous when driven by an idiot. The lighter and faster your boat is, the greater the potential for a disaster. That said, which do you want, a “lead sled” (those R-boats and C-boats) or a high-performance bass boat that requires a little judgement by the operator for safe operation? there will never be a completely safe 70mph+ boat, so long as humans operate them. The most important skill you can develop when using the internet to obtain information, is how to filter the chaff out and just keep the wheat… Any automobile will spin out if you drive it carelessly. Even a 1985 Caddy de Ville… I would just ignore such statements as being based more on ignorance than on fact…2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200
Old Timer put things well, as he usually does. Dont read too much into other comments. First the incident involving Rick occurred within a mile of the test ramp, with most of the management staff watching. He is the dedicated test driver for BCB and can, and will do things with a boat most would never consider. He also pushes them further to insure that they perform to a standard he is comfortable for a consumers uses. In this incident Rick was not pleased with the set up, and openly questioned a motor rep on that application. Telling him in front of others his expectations in the performance. His father also gave him the option of not driving the rig as Rick felt it was unsafe. In the end he proved his point and paid a big price for someone elses error and opinions. He was right and several were watching the incident when it occurred. On Jamess issue, we understand what we have been told occurred, and he told others he was running low to mud 70s in rough water. Though we were not there personally. That we should leave to James. On any hull tendencies, we have a poster on our bulletin board , it is for a benefit tournament. This is for the families of two young men who passed away just over a year ago on Lake Norfork. They were ejected in rough water in what the GPS indicated to be a bow hook. It was not a BCB, though another brand that you probably visited to bring you here. There are other witnessed issues also on this brand, and others. Again OT57 said it well, and we must all be more careful. Today we can walk in and drop $50k and go to the water and run 80+. Now we need to think some before we hand our kids the keys to the boat. They are faster today as those 250 engines gain popularity, and BCB sales run about 9 out of 10 now being 250 instead if 225 on 20 boats. Things are changing and we have to be more cautious.Last edited by Bass Cat Boats on February 2nd, 2008, 6:11 am, edited 2 times in total.
Old timer is accurate with his assessment! Theres a lot of difference with a hull that is capable of 80 mph vs. one that is capable of only doing 70 and any boat or brand is capable of doing it if the conditions are there. Driver input and experience has a huge effect on the situation. Lets take a look at two the two situations discussed above. Rick was thrown out of the boat due to taking a setup to the extreme and actually knew he was “rollin the dice”. Thats part of his job to insure that we as customers are getting our moneys worth with the highest performing hull with safety at mind! The next situation happened on the St. Johns River in Florida at a BASS Open. James Niggemeyer was the affected individual and after listening to James talk about the situation it leads me to believe that he was driving too fast for the conditions. He was doing anywhere between 72-74 in a winding river that had one turn after another. He told me he had passed at least a hand full of boats or more when he crossed a wake that ate his lunch. The next thing he knew was he was in the water. This was not the only boating accident that week as there were several others with different brands of boats that did the exact same thing. To say the 08 Bass Cat hulls have a flaw is the far from the truth! Ive ran my 08 Puma hull to the extreme with no ill effects. It has been in all water conditions from calm to 5 footers, boat wakes, turns, the whole 9 yards with no adverse results. It has also been driven up to 82 mph, but I do choose my water conditions to do it in and respect the conditions as given. To decide or think otherwise is not smart unless you are Rick and its part of your job. Driving in less than favorable conditions at above 70 mph is very similar to driving your vehicle above 70 mph in rush hour traffic. Better yet, its like being in a hurry to Mountain Home Arkansas to fish the Owners Tournament and not respecting the downhill curves that you see every 1/10th mile!Last edited by PhilAddison on February 1st, 2008, 7:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.
As usual basscat has a complete and honest answer. I have been a BCB owner and fan since 1987 and always happy with my choice. I just wanted to hear the true story behind the headline. Thanks BCB Irv
I really do not understand why we would bring statements that are made on sites designed for other brands of boats to our board. This type of trashing goes on all the time and is not what we need to be concerned with. We only need to read about comments made on our site about our brand, which of course is the best. People reading the CHAMPION site are interested about that boat or they would not be looking in the first place, when an outsider reads our site they should be reading comments by owners that have had the needed experiences to truthfully talk about our product. This talk from the CHAMPION site should have been left there and answered on that site, there is no reason to get our people upset over statements from other competitors sites. Just my 2 cents worth.. SAMLast edited by SAMRUSH on February 3rd, 2008, 4:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.BAYOU BANDIT
Thanks for the rationale there Sam. BCB
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