Indestructible Triumph boat stories

[coxg20]

When I was in the process of buying my 190 bay on 02' I was test riding with it with the salesman in a near-by bayou here in LA. As we were about to pull the boat out of the water, the salesman said not to worry about hooking the boat to the trailer (which I rarely did with my 17' Boston Whaler that I owned at the time). I was also testing how my Chevy S-10 would pull the boat out of the the new bigger boat out of the water. As I was pulling the boat out (with the sales person in the boat) I felt a sort of a jerk then off I went, then I heard yelling. I looked back and the entire boat was laying on the concrete driveway to the launch, about 10' from the water. It hit the concrete hard, and the boat had very minimal damage, yet the lower unit of the engine was damaged. If that were a fiberglass boat, the damage would have been bad. I told the salesman "It sure passed the durabilty test, now order me a new one and I will buy it." On an extra note as we were trying to get the boat back on the trailer by backing it up to the boat and forcing it back on the trialer, the trailer then bent before the boat fell on back on it. In one test ride we damaged the boat, motor, and trailer, yet the boat by far sustained the least damage.
-George-

[mtty]

Last summer we got a job at a house on Lake Leowee here in SC. The GC said if we'd bump him to the front of the list we could stay on his house boat. I figured I'd take my 170CC and commute by water to the job on a daily basis. First few days were great with my 170 on mooring whips across the stern of this 70 foot house boat. Then a storm blew up one afternoon pushing 2 to 3 footers directly into the beam of the boat. I soon found out mooring whips aren't much good in anything over about 6 inches of chop. With 2 to 3s tossing the boat port to starboard and the wind pushing the boat into the stern of the houseboat the boat repeatedly crashed down onto the sterndrives of the house boat. I had sought some libations at the local watering hole and decided I'd better check on the boat. It was starting to blow pretty good. Imagine my suprise when I arrived to see my boat repeatedly dropping off 3 footers onto the sterndrives of the houseboat. At any rate I can say with confidence that a glass boat would be at the bottom of the marina. The Triumph had a few gashes along the chine and is none the worse for wear. Anybody have a heat gun or know of any reading that can be done regarding the "welding" of these gashes???????

[McSpadden]

When this thread was started, I did not have a story to tell, and quite honestly did not want one. Well, even though it is quite embarrassing to me I would like to share with you guys the experience I had this last Thursday.

A friend of mine and I had gone fishing in the bear creek area of Deer point lake here in Panama City Florida. Started out good, both he and I caught a little brim on the first cast, then, nothing. We fished and explored that area for a couple of hours and decided to head to Econfina creek to cool down. The water there is spring fed, clear and cool. I took a shortcut into the swamp and was running my normal route into the creek when it happened. My sunglasses fell from the center console of my 2003 170 Cool. I was only running about 25 mph in a nice wide part of the channel. I reached down to pick up the sunglasses, and at this point, our traumatic experience began.

I must have taken my other hand off of the steering wheel to put the sunglasses on. Dumb move, the wheel immediately turned had right, threw me out of the seat and onto the floor of the boat. As I regained situational awareness, I look up to see us headed directly for a cypress tree. From the floor of the boat I attempted to turn us left, into the open channel but could tell right away we were not going to make it, I steered us to the right of the tree but glanced of it, hitting hard enough that the front floor of the boat came up about two inches, judging by the screws being pulled out and the marks on the side of the boat, we pinballed off of at least three other trees or stumps, the last one bringing us up on the left side to the point I thought we were going to turn over. The boat righted itself, I had steered us back into the channel so I cut the throttle and we checked out each other and the boat. Not sure why I did not cut the throttle earlier, think I had my hands full as I was still on the floor trying to steer us clear and knew cutting power would leave me no steerage.

As I stated above, the first tree we glanced off of we hit hard enough to push the front left of the floor up about two inches. The right side rail front mount screws had pushed up and the right bumper rail was ripped off the boat from about two feet from the bow to a couple of feet from the stern. The screws that hold the bumper pad on were smashed into the side of the boat. Had this been a fiberglass boat I am convinced it would have holes on both sides and the rest of my afternoon would have been spent trying to float her up and out. An aluminum boat would probably have thrown us from the impact.

I am now prepared to be scolded and ridiculed but also hope to hear some other stories that perhaps some members have been to embarrassed to pass along.

And guys, “WE OWN ONE TOUGH BOAT!!!!”

[NCangler]

Accidents happen. I'm just glad you guys weren't hurt. Sounds like the boat took a good lick but can be repaired.

[jergofish]

Hit a tree at 25 mph. Hmmm try that with a Corvette and see what it would look like!

[McSpadden]

Randy,

I repaired the bow rail the next day and was back on the water. The screws that had been pushed up screwed back in tight. One of these days I may try to find a heat gun to smooth the scrapes but they really don't look bad, you have to look pretty hard to see them. Depending on the weather, I will be making the Econfina run later today, it looks cloudy now but should clear up. One thing is for sure, at least one hand will remain on the steering wheel at all times <G> not that I did not normally do that anyway.

Dave

[cagrove]

Wow! As NCangler said, at least you weren't hurt. It sounds like your boat did O.K. too. You were lucky!!

[Dick@merrittmarine]

Dave, Try adjusting the trim tab on the motor, It should help reduce the torque steering on your boat.

Dick

[mark]

dont ever ask a fisherman to tell you a story...........

[McSpadden]

Mark,

Was I to long winded for you? Thanks for the laugh, I got tickled when I read your reply.

Dick,

You mean the round metal piece that has the dorsel fin on it? What position is considered normal for it. I have noticed that mine is turned to one side but thought maybe it was supposed to be.

Dave