Mystic rebuild after crashing full speedinto a kayak

[capnswanny]

JLandwer,
It's Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Gloss "Banner Red"
Corey

[capnswanny]

Ready to float!

[NativePaul]

I don't like to put a downer on the tread as it looks like a great job of repair here, from bill and yourself, but there is a VERY important safety issue here that can't be ignored.

Running FE boats in water occupied with humans (be it swimmers, divers or users of smallcraft) is irresponsible and dangerous!

While this incident worked out relatively well with only property damage, I hope you and your wife can see that it wouldn't have taken much for this to have become much more serious, a little air on the Mystic or the Kayakist dipping his gunwale into the water and it could have easily hit him/her instead of/as well as his/her boat, which would have obviously been much more serious, I don't have a mystic so know how fast or heavy they are but I did the maths recently for a generic 4s boat at 2kg and 50mph it has more kinetic energy than a bullet fired from a .357magnum.

Apart from the other water users life that you have endangered, ask your self some questions from your point of view. If the worst were to happen could I llive with myself? Would boats still be welcome at your lake/in your town/city? would there be any repercussions on the sport as a whole nationally and not just FE, nitro/gas too.

I'm not just talking to the OP here as I have heard tales of this sort of thing and numerous near misses like it from all over the world before, I hope you/ your wife and everyone who has done it in the past, learns their lesson from this and never runs a fast boat in water occupied by other people again.

[capnswanny]

I agree Paul...a very dangerous situation

However, judging by your post:
"Apart from the other water users life that you have endangered"
It would appear that you assume that I was at the helm of this vessel, sorry if I gave you that impression.
I was not at the helm of this vessel or in the kayak, nor was my wife...I am just the grateful recipient of the aftermath.
Thanks for your concern.
Corey

[NativePaul]

Indeed, I mistakenly believed that your wife was at the helm and you were her pit-man, sorry.

Unfortunately there are those that through ignorance, thoughtlessness or malice will endanger the lives of others, and where it is safe to do so it is our duty as citizens to protect innocents from these dangers, this can easily be done with a quick explanation to the ignorant or thoughtless, but though I hope it would never happen maybe getting the police to "serve and protect" would do the job in the event of someone driving a boat with malice if you though yourself to be in danger should you try to be more forceful.

From your description of the sound the crash made you were plainly present and must take some small part of the responsibility for not preventing the un-named driver running with a person in the water. From a purely selfish view, not only were they endangering the life of that person, but they were endangering your use of the lake as well as their own.

[capnswanny]

Yeah Paul, I was close enough to hear it, I even ran over in time to watch the guy swim the 10 feet back to shore!
Please don’t think I’m disagreeing with your point of view on public safety and our role as by-standers to step in to protect the innocent.
BUT
The innocent victim in the kayak of whom we speak was in fact the owner of the vessel and a 50+ year old man. He chose to stay in his kayak as he continually egged his friend (the operator of said vessel) to get ever closer to him to “spray him with water.”
As Paul Harvey would say: “…and now you know, the rest of the story”
Were they Reckless? Yes
Would I pull that kind of crap? Hell No!
Do I feel responsible (even partly) for his actions or the consequences? No Way!

Cheers!
Corey

[MR2NR]

Well this is interesting. They are holding a RC boat show in St. Louis with paddle boats in the water. I run 34 Mph and never thought I would hurt anybody. Am I being careless? The area is pretty large and everyone loved the boats but when is it too dangerous? Will probably use a different part of the lake for any races and the paddle boats have to be all in by sunset.