[lawn psycho]

Originally Posted by LIforrelaxin

Let me just say this.... what does it really matter what happened. What matter, is that the capt got everyone off the boat and everyone was rescued, That is the bottom line.

Now because of insurance, and blame, and fault, etc, etc, etc, and expensive operation was undertaken to recover the boat from over 100 feet off water... in my mind that boat could have just been left. There wasn't enough gas or oil to worry about poisoning the lake it would of slow dispersed to the top of the lake and evaporated.

But the boat was raised, and was hauled off for investigation, the investigation was done and reports where written. Now if the results where anything but weather, of operator error, or some fluke accident I am sure there would have been note worthy new reports. If Cobalt had a defective hull, or Thurston's Service dept. had made a mistake the reports and gossip would have run wild, they didn't....

My guess, is that something totally innocent happened that day out of the control of the capt of the vessel, that cause water entry...a bellows tear, a hull fitting not properly sealed that finally reached a critical point. The problems are numerous.

The bottom line is this... the investigation probably showed that it was a series of issues that lead to the problem, that no one entity was the culprit, and unfortunately, an accident occurred.

Let all hope that if something like that happens to any one of use, that we are able to keep are cool and keep everyone safe.

After I read this thread I sent and email to Four Winns asking about bouyancy (22 ft boat). The basically said they only guarantee positive bouyancy equal to the weight listed on the plate. If you get swamped and exceed it, down she goes.......