TOPIC: Can you break or beat your boat to death?

A night ago.... full moon.... Wife out of town..... I took My 59 Playmaster out and burned six gallons at full throttle....absolutely wonderful.....It hit hard multiple times.....It hit so hard I thought my real teeth could fall out......My first boat resto......I think I did good. No cracks, no tragedy. I was a bit dented the next day but good to go.

Dave, All the years I've never had a boat break apart on me because of hard rough hits on the water. Some pretty huge waves have crashed over the bows and there was some wave jumping where equipment has actually taken flight from the boat. They can break if you hit something in the water like when going full speed at night!!!! And I suppose you can beat it to death when it's on a trailer using a tire iron. Sounds like you did a good resto job.

Not so true with a wood boat.
We had our 1956 Century Resorter out on Lake Washington, back in about 2008 +/-.
We had been at the Sea Fair unlimited hydro races, and as they were wrapping up, we decided to cruise around Mercer Island, before heading to the boat ramp at Coulon Park, Renton, WA.
As we were finishing our loop around the island, a huge yacht came through the channel at 50 MPH +. It was probably about 100 ft long, and there were at least 20 people up on the upper deck, drinking and sight seeing.
The wake looked like a Tsunami coming at us.
We had no where to hide, with the island shore to starboard and this Tsunami to port, I felt our only choice was to turn into the wake and hope for the best. People on the yacht began pointing at us and laughing.
The wake hit really hard, going over the deck & windshield, hosing us down completely. My 6 year old son was freaked out.
As the wake hit, I heard a loud "CRACK"!!!
I thought that we had popped a plank and were going to sink.
Mercury Momma took the helm and headed for the boat ramp, about a 1/4 - 1/2 mile due south., while I started lifting the floor boards in preparation to stuff tee-shirts, towels, whatever into the hole. There was water in the bilge, but not any gushing water movement.
I couldn't lift all the floor boards underway, so I headed in to the beach at the launch.
The launch was really crowded with lots of boats waiting their turn to load out.
The police immediately came over to tell me I had to wait my turn, but when I explained my concerns, they got on their radios, and as my wife rushed to bring in our truck & trailer, the police opened a lane for us to use.
The other boaters helped line us up and load us out quickly. One boater told the police that he had seen what had happened and thought we were goners for sure. That helped inspire others to help and be patient I'm sure.
Water was running out from an area under the trailer bunk, so I couldn't see much.
We thanked everybody, and headed for home.
I found that a rib under the front seat, starboard side had fractured, and the ends of two planks that butted together at that rib had spit out a few screws.
We felt REALLY lucky.
I never really enjoyed that boat after that, and a year later sold it and bought a fiberglass Pro Star 190 Mastercraft.
It is the one behind my G-3 in my moniker.
doc F

Doc, The spot you described is one of the weak points on those boats. Danenberg's wooden boat restore book points this out and when I rebuilt my '63 Century Sabre I found that that area was spread out and dutchmen were screwed in place. The reason this area goes ka-poot is because it is the seat at the helm that is the only place there is constant weight from drivers sitting and bouncing during driving and is constantly getting hammered. Add some soft screw holes and it's gunna happen.
I was thinking of adding that in my original comment but held back because it is a mainly glass site. Add that the wood on the hull is less than 1/2" thick doesn't help. So yah I guess you could say you could break your boat to death but only if it sinks to an unrecoverable depth. Glad you and yours made it back safetly.

Me too!!!
doc

That was a beautiful old wood Doc..!

Awesome stories fellas. That sure was a beaut doc!

Looks like safe water with parked boat pictures. Those last couple of pictures were amazing! I have heard the stress noise from my glass boat when a big cruiser dashed by in Lake Michigan. Had my light needle nose Hydrsteam. Dropped to fast idle to keep nose high... I still wound up piercing it and took about a 1 foot sheet of water over the bow. It slammed my face and chest... that woke me up. Glad I didn't hit it fast or try to jump... would not have turned out well. Cruiser crew got a good laugh.

Some people just don't respect the classics. My Granny never really liked Pawpaws boat, she said it sat too low in the water. One of the last times my grandparents were out in the boat, my Granny told me a group of young people almost swamped them and said the kids were laughing as if they did that on purpose. Wish I had been there, it would not have been pretty for those idiots.