Pontoon vs Bass Boat

[k2mtnbiker]

Talk about stupid tricks, pontoon boat towing inner tube with child on tube. He is going west and I'm going south, with plenty<br />of room to clear each other. <br /> Until this idiot decides he wants to go back the opposite direction, so he makes a U-turn in front of me. I'm locked in a <br />swell and can't turn away, heading straight for the rope between the pontoon and child on the tube. Thank goodness the child <br />didn't fall off the tube. I had done everything I could do, but thank god, I was able to clear the child on the tube by about 20 to 30 <br />feet. The sad part is, when I went back and confronted the driver of the pontoon boat, his reply was, Gosh, I didn't<br />see you. "I had to leave quickly or I would have been in serious trouble", but he did get a tongue lashing before I left. <br />The really great part of this story is, "This idiot was the only person on the pontoon boat", he did have a dog with him though.<br /> Now that I think about it, "Could this have been a seeing eye dog".........

 

[dakotashooter2]

Re: Pontoon vs Bass Boat

THAT is why most states require an observer in the boat while towing skiers or tubes.

 

[DJ]

Re: Pontoon vs Bass Boat

It is the obsevers job to watch the person being towed. That's it. The observer is not supposed to be looking forward or around.<br /><br />It is the boats operator that holds the responsibility to be looking out for other traffic.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Re: Pontoon vs Bass Boat

Saw something similar happen on the Kanawha River in WV back in the early eighties.<br /><br />Drunks in a boat pulling another drunk on an inner tube.<br /><br />Boat makes a sharp 180 turn and the guy on tube plows into bow of boat that was following the drunks.<br /><br />I'm on boatwatch duty for the local sternwheeler docked at the levee. This was in the days before cell phones, so I call the Charleston Marine Operator on the radio, and request help.<br /><br />In the meantime, l row a small dingy out to the accident scene (both boats are disabled. I was a trained lifeguard, and a national championship rower).<br /><br />I pull the injured guy into the dingy, and row back to the Sternwheeler. The paramedics and ambulance are just arriving as I drag the injured guy onto the deck. His arm is almost severed and the bone is protruding. <br /><br />I then spent the next two hours giving reports to the police and coast guard.<br /><br />I then spent another hour cleaning the blood and gore off the deck of the Sternwheeler.

 

[Snailman]

Re: Pontoon vs Bass Boat

I remember some time back when Francis Ford Copala's son got killed in an accident very similar to this in or near Baltimore MD while he was in DC filming "Gardens of Stone." As I recall.... Ryan O'Neal's son was in hot water for that one.