Anybody saying that the ocean is flat enough for a boat to travel 200 mph on has no clue what they are talking about. It doesn't take much for a boat to be disturbed traveling at this speeds.
I was at this boat race as it was being held in my own town. Winds were light, 5-10 mph with a light chop in the water, 1-2 ft seas. But still, this boat was only traveling 100 mph and still flipped and 2 people died.
Anybody who knows anything about boating knows this is nothing to mess around with. Read the below article and think before you post nonsense.
Two people killed after speedboat capsizes
August 24, 2008
Two people were killed Sunday afternoon when their high-speed racing boat flipped during the Battle on the Bay powerboat race in Great South Bay off the Village of Patchogue, Coast Guard officials said.
The accident claimed the lives of Kevin Graff, of Port Washington and Phil DeJana, of Bayville, who were racing a 37-foot twin-engine catamaran, race officials said.
The powerboat was going between 90 and 100 mph when it turned over, said Paul Pontieri, mayor of the Village of Patchogue, who was at the race.
Suffolk County police said they were still determining the cause of the incident, but several witnesses at the scene said the boat appeared to overturn while it made a southeastern turn on the race course.
"It's just tragic ... It doesn't get any worse than this," Pontieri said. "It's a dangerous sport."
The incident occurred at about 4:30 p.m. due south of Shorefront Park, where spectators gathered to watch the event.
The race came to an abrupt end after the incident as the injured racers were removed and a crowd of several dozen people gathered on the shore as a Suffolk County police tow boat pulled the damaged vessel to the dock. Emergency officials remained on the scene near Shorefront Park in Patchogue yesterday evening. Flags in the park were lowered to half-staff.
An eight-foot gash was visible on the right rear side of the boat when the craft was removed from the dock.
Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Jeremy Clouse, coxswain of a 25-foot response boat on scene, said, "We were enforcing the security zone around the race and I noticed the water going everywhere."
Clouse continued: "The other 25-foot boat crew was already at the wreck, with two Coast Guardsmen in the water trying to do what they could to get the people out. One of the race helicopters dropped a diver who was able to get the emergency hatch open and pull the victims out."
The two men were transferred to a local fire response boat, which took them to Emergency Medical Service personnel waiting on the shore.
Both were pronounced dead at a hospital, officials said.
Jim Poplin, the race's safety director, said the cause of the crash was under investigation by the Offshore Performance Association, the sanctioning body that oversees the race. Poplin said workers for the association will take the boat apart and reconstruct it to see where the failure was.
"We had a high-speed racing accident. You attribute these things to speed," he said.
Several witnesses said they had met Graff and DeJana, members of a Port Washington-based boat racing team, on Saturday, when many of the racers, with their machines aboard trailers, parked on Patchogue's main street.
The two men operated a craft emblazoned with the names Aero Express and DeJana Industries. Kim Mellon, 40, of Holbrook, said her daughter Dayna, 7, had wished one of the drivers good luck and he'd given the girl a stick-on tattoo with his team name on it. "He even said I was his favorite," Dayna said, crying as she watched from shore.
The race -- a weekend-long event held in the bay between Patchogue and Fire Island -- was wrapping up with a full day of races yesterday.
Between 40 and 50 took to the waves during the event, sponsored by Great South Bay Racing Inc., OPA Racing and the Village of Patchogue.
He said more than 5,000 spectators watched the race from the shore and at least another 500 watched from their own boats.
Carole Rohde of Patchogue and other witnesses said it was difficult to tell what happened because the incident occurred well offshore.
"Bango, the race stopped," Rohde said. "We watched, and all of a sudden a police boat or something comes running onto the dock with obviously a patient on board."
