This photo is not my work, I’ve no copyright. This is basically what happened to my father in 1968 but driving a larger, faster boat. This is a Runabout, his boat was a Hydroplane, there’s a big difference in the hull configurations and power heads. Father was hit by the boat as it came back down from flipping at over 100mph, the boat cracked a rib which punctured one of his lungs.

He was in the hospital in Tennessee for several weeks. When he finally came home to Michigan he hid behind a kitchen door and surprised my sister and I. And it was indeed a wonderful surprise to see my dad! I was an eight year old kid, my sister was thirteen! He made a full recovery and looking back at this now, he was damn bloody lucky the boat didn’t kill him.

And this is exactly why my mother said no more boat racing!