TAF 550 Crash

[rivergames]

Copied from my FB:

I don't want to make this post, but figure I should since a lot of people were excited to see our new drag boat on the water. This weekend was a very sad weekend of boat racing. First off, we lost our GREAT friend Kyle Cannon yesterday. My condolences to all of his family and friends.
Now in regards to the TAF 550. We ran a practice and Tony Costantino did everything needed to feel the boat out and make sure everything was working correctly. All was good.
Second time she went out (1st qualifier), Tony hit the gas and everything looked absolutely perfect. Tony felt great and was going to run her down the track. All of a sudden the boat instantly nose dived and disintegrated. Tony was in the capsule and waving his hands at the rescue to let them know he was OK. The AMAZING NJBA Rescue Team was on him within seconds and lifted the capsule onto the rescue boat and made sure he was 100%. Thank God he was! Thank you Jimmy Todd and ALL of National Jet Boat Association Rescue!
Here is the reason the boat crashed. We should have added more bolts right on the front of the blast plate towards the bow. The prop wash found it's way on the front joint of the plate and bent the front of the plate down all the way back into the rudder and that is why the boat completed nose dived.
To All Boaters, If you have any type of plates under your boat, make sure there are many bolts holding down the leading edge. I NEVER want to see this happen to anyone ever again.

 

[rivrrts429]

That was a violent nose dive and luckily it wasn’t on the big end. Happy to hear Tony is going to be okay.

RIP Kyle…

 

[76sanger]

Wow! I have never seen a flat do that before. Great explanation of what happened. Thank you! RIP KC!

 

[77charger]

Crazy how the smallest things can show up and make the difference in a boat crashing or staying upright.glad tonys ok though.better at start than finish

 

[skiracr]

Holy Shit!
Condolences to Kyle and his family, so very sad.

Thankful Tony is ok! I went for a ride in his original White Trash boat a long time ago, and once was enough. I still have the OG King of the Trailer Park T-shirt!

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

That looks very similar to a jet boat when the motor breaks and the jet quits turning and turns into a water brake.

 

[rivermobster]

Oh damn.

 

[rrrr]

That was a frightening crash. Really happy your driver is OK.

May Kyle rest easy. What a tragedy.

 

[jetboatperformance]

Late to the thread , I'm confused though please forgive me were there two wrecks ?

 

[cyclone]

Such a violent wreck! can't believe it broke the stringers in the boat! glad it happened at the start and not the finish.

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

Late to the thread , I'm confused though please forgive me were there two wrecks ?

Correct.

 

[bagged97taco]

Damn man, glad Tony is good. Race in peace to Kyle. Hard to believe that water would do that to the blast plate, crazy what water can do. Glad it wasn’t at the top end for sure

 

[rightytighty]

Seemed like it tried to stuff the nose on the first run too?

As stated by all- Glad the driver is ok.

 

[coolchange]

Wow. Glad he’s ok. That could have been really REALLY bad.

 

[JB in so cal]

 

[rrrr]

That lane marker musta had a really good anchor.

 

[skiracr]

2008 King of the trailer park!

 

[n2otoofast4u]

I didn’t want to post about either of these here.

I got the call about Kyle as we were pulling out of Havasu yesterday to head home. Still trying to put it all together in my head, Kyle was one that I always looked forward to seeing. RIP buddy, we’ll see you on the other side.

Kyle is local to me, family to another member here, and someone I considered a friend and fellow HP enthusiast. He’ll be VERY missed by our group up here!


Andrew @rivergames my buddy told me that WT disintegrated but everyone was ok, so I let it lay assuming that you’d post eventually. Sucks for sure, but much better outcome than what was possible! Glad your driver was ok!

 

[Hondo-407]

It's a bit of a bummer to me that you had to overshadow the loss of Kyle with your lessons learned after Tony's incident...

 

[rrrr]

It's a bit presumptuous to gauge someone's reaction to death by what they do or don't post on a forum.

Losing a fellow competitor in a racing event is one of the most tragic experiences there is. How one reacts is a personal journey that isn't easy to talk about.

 

[cofooter]

RIP Racer! Sorry about your boat, and glad everyone is OK, will you build another?

 

[n2otoofast4u]

It's a bit of a bummer to me that you had to overshadow the loss of Kyle with your lessons learned after Tony's incident...

I wouldn’t look at it like that at all. I am nearly certain Andrew and Kyle were friends and competitors with great respect for each other. Andrew has been involved in a significant accident himself, and has been affected by several others. Death is a funny thing, especially in these scenarios. Kyle would take no exception to what Andrew posted in my opinion.

 

[callbob]

I wouldn’t look at it like that at all. I am nearly certain Andrew and Kyle were friends and competitors with great respect for each other. Andrew has been involved in a significant accident himself, and has been affected by several others. Death is a funny thing, especially in these scenarios. Kyle would take no exception to what Andrew posted in my opinion.

i have to agree. Sounded to me like he was paying tribute to Kyle before explaining how their accident happened. “Overshadowed”? No more like overthought on someone’s part.

 

[rivergames]

Everyone can have their opinion. I was clearly providing my respect to a lost friend before I provided my explanation of what happened to our boat disintegrating.

Just when we thought our situation was bad, the weekend got much worse and we are all deeply hurt.

 

[timstoy]

So glad Tony was not seriously injured. You have been there yourself and things happen. I don’t think I met Kyle but he and his family are in our prayers. The racing community is small and tragic incidents like this affects all of us. We all know the dangers that come with racing . Godspeed Kyle!

 

[Grantk]

Sorry to hear about Kyle. Our prayers and condolences to family and friends from Canada.

 

[lbhsbz]

A race weekend with one crash is bad. A race weekend when we lose a racer is horrible. A race weekend with 2 crashes and a lost racer just flat sucks....but when one of those racers is still here, that makes it a bit better.

I haven't raced boats, but I've raced cars....and we all know what could happen when we strap in and put the visor down.....we just hope it won't.

Godspeed to Kyle and glad Tony walked (swam?) away. Boats are replaceable.

The only good thing to come from this is what we can learn from failure analysis to make tragedy a bit less likely for the next race weekend.