Indestructible Triumph boat stories

[mort4345]

Hey everyone, I've heard a lot about the indestructible nature of Triumph boats and was curious if anyone has any funny, interesting or crazy stories about the indestructible nature of their own boats over the years. I'm also an editor working on a magazine story for Wave Magazine and if there are some good tales that come out of this, I'd love to use the stories - with your permission of course - for the article. If you'd like to post the stories in this thread, I think it'd be fun for everyone to read. However, if you have a great story to tell and if you'd like to contact me personally, you can email me at:
gmortenson@jacobsinteractive.com.

[Genelie]

Well..I have a few, but the one that stands out the most...on my maiden voyage at our local lake( lake san vencente).. I was trying to get close to the dock so my partner could jump out of the boat and onto to the dock. Well being with the new boat, and of course not used to it. Docking was bit interesting. For what ever reason, I was having problems getting close, mainly I think I was worried about scratching the boat, since I am used to fiberglass boats..the old fear sort of sticks with you. So my partner decides he will jump from my boat onto a valco aluminum boat, that was tied up on the dock. From there he could hop onto the dock and help me pull up and dock. Well as he jumped onto the valco boat, the force from the jump, caused the aluminum boat to bounce up in the air, and the corner of the aluminum boat (which is the strongest part of those boats.) SLAMMED hard into my boat, I nearly soiled myself with fear. Now if that was a fiberglass boat, their would of been a hole at least the size of of your hand. ALL I got was a slight gash about 1 inch long and about 1/8 of an inch wide.

[Dick@merrittmarine]

True story---, Back in the late 90s, when I was at the factory, I sold 6, 17' boat's to a fish camp in Guadalajara, Mexico. A few months later the owner called and said that his guides were fighting to use the Logics rather than the Fiberglass Pangas. His Guide's said the Logic's attracted fish! He thought that the natural static electricty that the boat's generated, were the reason that guides, using Logics, were catching more fish! Well, from a marketing standpoint, I thought I stumbled on a Gold Mine. I tried to get one of the local Universities to do a study on this phenomenon, even offering the use of a boat for a year. Think about it, If I were succussful, I could advertise that this great new boat is being studied because it catches more fish. If it proved true, the industry would get the word out quickly, If not, The advertising push would have advanced the technology, therefore sales.
Unfortunatly, Universities would not take my offer of the use of a boat without additional funding that we just did not have.

Dick

[cluggie]

I'm sure you've seen the funny stories about this, but this is also a true story! We'd been having a hard time getting the boat to come off the carpeted bunks during launch, and driving the boat onto the trailer was a real chore. So we'd read about a product called Liquid Rollers. The product stated to Just spray on the carpeted bunks, let dry, and your boat will come off and go on as if they were just that -- rollers.
So, with the prior difficulties in mind, we launched our 190DC at a steep ramp. As we had a few weeks before, the other half stopped the boat when the back wheels were just about into the water. Unhooked the winch. While the other half was climbing back into the truck to back the rest of the way down the ramp, I yelled out, "better make this a quick launch... she's moving." And of course at that point, the other half puts it in reverse, and just that little bit of movement was enough to send the boat backwards, off the trailer. The boat bounced on the concrete - stern, then bow. Then she slid down the concrete into the water. The guys watching on the docks were horrified. Once I figured out what had happened, I shrugged my shoulders and laughed, stating, "I love my plastic boat". I lowered the motor, started her up and headed to the campground.
Further inspection revealed a scuff along the keel. I hate to think what damage a figerglass boat would have suffered... I LOVE my plastic boat!

[daveh]

Great stories, I was thinking of trying that liquid roller stuff.Glad I seen cluggie's story first.

[Perdido Key]

I purchased my 04 19 Bay from and insurance salvage liquidator (U S Auction.com) in Dec 04. It was on the trailer in the yard of a water front house in Pensacola Fl. When Ivan hit it destroyed the house down to the concrete slab, killed the original owner, and washed the boat and trailer four blocks away. They found it wedged between two houses. The boat was full of house insulation, roofing shingles, and tree limbs. I still wash roofing gravel out of the cracks. Needless to say the trailer sustained more damage than the boat. The boat has a few "character" scratches and the console windshield has some scratches where roof shingles went blowing by; otherwise its in great shape. The 04 outboard only had 32 hours.

[unkl jessie]

I had my 2001 186 Logic for about 7 months and was on her maiden voyage to the Morehead City area for some salt water fishing. We were renting a place that had a small dock. There were 3 boats tied to this small dock. I tied my to the side of the dock and thought there were enough points tied to keep the Logic in place.

Next morning, the early riser in the group woke me up and informed me that my boat was under the dock. Geesh! The tide went out and when it came back in, the bow slipped under the dock. The only part of the motor in the water was the tip of the skeg. Try to get that picture out of your mind. The bow was only 1 ot 2 inches from going under water.

We went to work trying to get her out. First, we stood on the bow and tried to push the bow down, but too much bouyancy in the bow to get it to move enought to get the cleat out from under the dock. We found 2x4's and tried to pry her bow down and out, but the board broke. Finally found two 2x6's and wedged the bow down and moved the Logic out from under the dock.

Big relief! Then we stepped from the boat to the dock. The dock colapsed under the two of us.

Damage to the plastic boat. The cleat that orginally kept us from getting her out from uder the dock was bent about 45 degrees from its orginal angle. I went to the cleat, pushed it back to its orginial position and it stayed. Can not even tell anything was done to the boat. It is still tight.

Then there was the time I bounced her off several of the underwater gun batterys at Cape Lookout Light House. That's another story in itself.

Love my 'plastic boat'!

Unk

[Cincinnati]

Great story jessie!

[ILLOGICAL GGC]

back long ago and far away from where this group is today ,there was a picture of a 210 that hit a concrete seawall head on at, someone may need to correct me here, but i want to say like 30 mph. the picture was supposed to be used as a deterant for those of us looking to buy a triumph at that time.however,i viewed the photo as proving just how tough these boats are.. there isnt anything gonna survive a hit like that and remain intact,however the the boat remained afloat with the whole bow broken off it to the waterline.
they remain the world's toughest boats . and, dollar for dollar compared to boats of equal size the are the worlds best bargain. they are definately the most user friendly from a maintanace, to major project modifications boat out there.
GGC

[AstroDiver]

Gee, I wonder what a glass boat would look like after the same type of hit? And, would it still be floating?
I'd like to see such a photo and even have a copy of it.