Sad and near my house. Rule #1. It's a toy boat and not worth dying for.

[photohoward1]

http://www.wkyc.com/story/news/local/portage-county/2015/06/14/crews-search-for-possible-drowning-victim-in-aurora/71212416/

[Doug Smock]

Wow, it happens every year. Very sad, I feel for his family.

[kfxguy]

Exactly why I didn't swim to get mine. I'm 38 years old, work out 3-4 times a week. In pretty good physical shape and I know I couldn't do it. If your not a seasoned swimmer and that's all you do for a living, then don't try it. I did do it once as the boat was only 25 or so feet out. When I realized that I had to swim with one arm and carry back a water logged object that helped to drag me down, I was very surprised how much harder the task of swimming got.

[ron1950]

Its surprising how many people in this country cant swim well. Found this out when i was in navy boot camp many years ago. Theymake u swim and if u cant you will learn lol. Still sad case

[Local Boy]

Very sad indeed....

Unfortunately, we see drownings here in the Islands much too often...

Ocean/water safety is very important, even for our best watermen, and big wave surfers...

Aloha

[Doby]

Sad news...but unfortunately you will still find "hero's" on all forums (including OSE) who will try and justify it.

Guess your boat and family are only worth the cost of the boat.

[T.S.Davis]

If my whole fleet went down together I'm not going in after it. They're fun and all but just toys. Yeah pricey sure......but toys. I've run out waist deep a couple times but I'm not swimming for them.

These stories are always horrible. We hear another it seems every six months now.

I wish we could think of a way to get people to stop trying it. I thought about maybe some sort of flier when you open the box on an RTR but people don't even read the instructions on those so it wont likely help. It's probably in there.

[Spartanator]

Could of at LEAST worn a life jacket...

[NorCal]

Could of at LEAST worn a life jacket...

My exact thought - at a minimum. Never leave home for the water w/o my trusty old $50 NQD "rescue rig" tied off w/ fishing line & a couple of bobbers. Just as much fun as blowin it over!

[Darin Jordan]

When I FIRST started in RC Boats... with one of those little AQ Reef Racers... I had a runaway out on Lake Washington. It ran around in circles (fresh battery) for about 5-min, then stopped about 30-yards offshore. This was April, so it's sunny, but only in the 60's here normally.

I stripped down to my boxers and swam out after it. I got there fine, but on the way back, the cold water started really affecting my muscles. I BARELY made it back to the dock, and was VERY sore for about 4 days afterwards.

Honestly, I came very close to not making it back.

Simply NOT worth it, folks. One of the responsibilities of running these boats is having a SAFE retrieval method. You WILL need it at some point.

Tragic, and I hate hearing about stuff like this.

[ray schrauwen]

It's sad that some guys local to me still swim for boats. I keep warning them but......???

[NorCal]

Darin (& the rest who have contributed to this thread) thank you for explaining the "reality" of muscle cramp. Famous last words,,,,,"that'll never happen to me" (

[Doug Smock]

It happens again....................

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/07/28/man-drowns-in-lake-trying-to-retrieve-radio-controlled-boats/

[Doby]

Sad...yet some people on the forums still defend doing it..

[785boats]

And unfortunately it happened a couple of weeks ago here in my home town of Brisbane.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/q...-1227438201606