Re: What did this guy do wrong? Boat crash..
Can you trim that far out and rev out to redline and top speed? On a deep vee, with more bite, the answer is... well, you can, but you sacrifice some control, so make sure you have a straight line and the right water. Be ready to bring the throttle back. Really be ready.
Now, on a bass boat like that... while the deep vee boat is giving away some control, the bass boat is pretty much surrendering so much control that the whole ride is dangerous.
Dangerous is a subjective ranking. But some experienced boaters and observers can easily conclude by how the boat behaved before the crash on high speed runs that he wasn't far from the edge.
Now, it usually takes compounding factors to make tragedy possible. First, he was trimmed pretty far out, with the boat walking on the transom, and the motor drive barely holding/biting. Second, he approached a wake and seemed to make absolutely not one reasonable adjustment -- not to the speed or the trim.
"Feel" is an important thing that some people do not have inherently. I have been boating with guys who have been on the water for 40 years, and I am amazed at the number of guys who can't "feel" for chit. Some guys just have a way of bringing the trim or the speed, or even the bow, into the right position/setting, as they can feel the boat and react to its input.
Trimming all the way out; pushing the throttle forward and just bouncing over waves is eliminating all the rationale, reasoning and input that a human being should have at his/her disposal, and it is irresponsible.
Glad the guy lived, but he doesn't have any instincts, and as such, had to learn the hard way.
