http://stormlake.com/topstory2.htm

WTF? That poor kid.

How the hell did the operator not see the dredging buoys??? And how fast do you need to go to rip the motor off the transom and send it airborne?

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
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from what i heard originally they were traveling about 10 mph.but i just don't see how thats fast enough to flip the engine off the transom.they will flip up if you hit something but this just doesn't make sense.they have been dredging the lake for about 5-6 yrs and the pipes are clearly marked with lots of buoys,but the pipes are submerged just under the surface.there are even huge signs at every boat ramp warning to stay away.
back in the 60's they dredged the lake and the pipes were elevated off the water on big floats.

though there are some disadvantages, a jet drive does not have this problem. no prop hanging down to catch on under water debris and no prop to cut you if you are swimming near the rear of the boat.

The only assumption we can make is that it wasn’t a very large boat.
If the motor can fly forward far enough to hit the kid, not large at all. But then, we don't know where he was sitting at the time.
I’m thinking something around a 10 to 14 foot jon boat.

Nowhere does the story state that the motor was properly secured to begin with.

If it was a smaller HP motor, there’s a good chance that it was not equipped with a reverse gear, and thus would be rotated 180 to pull the boat rearward. In that case there is a lock down latch on many of them that would not let the motor “kick up” when hitting a submerged object.

My bet is on this being a small fishing boat with a motor not properly secured. Perhaps the wood clamp plate was too worn to properly clamp (tighten) the motor to. We've all seen severe clamp dimples. I don’t think it “ripped” or really “broke” away. I think it simply got knocked off.
As to why they hit the pipe to begin with – that depends on how well marked it is and what the driver was doing when they hit it. Sounds to me that he may not have had a good hold of the tiller at the time, if the motor was able to fly into the boat.

What we know for sure, is that this is a very sad tragedy indeed. Thoughts and prayers for the family and friends of this young boy.

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

from the pic i saw it looked like a pretty new crestliner open bow aluminum,probably in the 17 ft range.i'll have to see if i can find that pic.

according to the sioux city journal it was a 175 h.p. motor

Wow.
That's 'bout all I can say now.

10mph huh?
That's a heavy chunk of iron to launch back into a boat.
I still can't see that happening without something being "not right" to start with.

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

How the heck did the motor fly like that? Ignoring buoys and hitting stuff is pretty commen, heck people like to try to go in between tug boats towing barges all the time.

But to have a motor fly off like that is strange. Something was wrong with that boat, I'd be very interested in hearing the whole story after its investigated.


Very tragic loss. An 8 year old died not to long ago because some Coast Guard racer wannabes ran over the familys boat. Tragic all around.

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