Important Safety Message

[Jeffrey Durham]

Hey all, make sure your front deck door is latched/locked. I was fishing Sat and mine flew open and threw me out of the boat backwards, head first into a rather cool lake. It was not a fun experience If I had been closer to the shore line in a rocky area, it could have been rather ugly! Be safer that I was this weekend, now I will be wearing my PDF at all times.



Jeff

 

[Bruce Freeman]

Dang Jeff, How could that happen?



BF

 

[Gilbert Scales2]

Jeff, glad you are o.k., things do happen very quick. Here in southeast Louisiana the Coast Guard released stats showing out of 110 accidents 73 where rescused wearing life jackets, none died. The others were not wearing life jackets, 5 lived. Two who wore life jackets were seriously injured. Of the 32 who died, 30 drowned.

If you can make sense out of what I just wrote, you are very bright. It is the truth, however.



Bubby

 

[Jeffrey Durham]

I was fishing on the front, I was in my seat and make a quick motion backwards (I was talking to someone on the back of the boat) and next thing I know, SPLASH! Sucked to be me when I swallowed half the lake

All I can say, if you are not ready to meet the Lord, wear your PDFs at all time, don't care if you can swim if you whack your head on something! Good thing my daughter who is a certified diver was a quick thinker, I hit the boat coming back up but she helped me out! God bless certified driver daughters!!

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

I'm glad you're ok Jeff. I still don't understand though. Is your pedestal bolted to the deck door??



Uncle Billy

 

[Greg. Avery]

I'm with Bill I don't understand how this happened , unless you were moving , how could the door come open with enough force to throw a person out of the boat ? NO matter how it happened glad all is OK.

 

[Greg Meyer]

Jeff,



Glad you are none tyhe worse for the experience... That is one reason I like SOSPENDERS w/ auto inflate

 

[Larry Harp]

It is easy to to hit the drink. I came very close several times this weekend fishing in very choppy water. One time in particular...I was stepping down from the back deck. There was some clutter on the floor and as I was stepping around that the boat took an unexpected move and I lost my balance and fell across the driver seat. My face was about 7 inches from the water when forward momentum was halted. Fortunately nothing was damaged except my ego. The water was so rough yesterday that I was keeping my Sospenders on most of the time.



I've never gone in but I have had several close calls usually fishing the timber in the wind. Once I fell and broke one of my son's rods and another time I skinned my knee pretty bad on the carpet. I know it's just a mater of time until I go in. Certainly sometime to be aware of.



Harpo

 

[Jeffrey Durham]

On my Nitro 185 Fish and Ski, the front seat is bolts to the front compartment lid. Stupid design, it has a lock but I never lock my boat...:wacko:

 

[Tony Payne]

Suddenly it makes sense....



Glad you're alright...

 

[Terry Hutchison]

Glad you're OK. Sure wish we had a video of you being ejected from the boat!

 

[Thomas Mc Innish]

I now wear my Sospenders from the time I back the boat in until I have the transom tie downs on. I gave up taking chances. I almost went in while washing my hands off this weekend. From now on it's back to the console and sit down to wash them.

 

[Jeffrey Durham]

I have the Sospendens also but cannot come around to trusting them:unsure: With my luck the cartridge would fly out and hit me in the head:wacko:

 

[Steve Rizza]

Message well taken.

I got in the habit early of wearing my PFD when the engine is running. But in reality I am much more likely to just clumsily fall off of the deck while fishing, than get tossed out of the boat while under power at a blistering 30 mph.

Add to that the fact that I fish alone alot of the time, from ice out to ice up, it's trouble waiting to happen.



I have been thinking of getting a Mustang flotation jacket for the cold days, and an inflatable vest for the warm days. I just need to quit putting it off and order them.





Steve

 

[TOMMY RICH]

Uh...same thing happened to my buddy Carl last year at Lake Erie...big wave and the latch was not locked and skinned himself up good but at least he had the higher sides on his deep V and was not thrown out.