The Gateway Marathon Plays Rough

[Speed on the Water]

Taking sporty water to another level, https://www.speedonthewater.com/the-gateway-marathon-plays-rough/

 

[Serious News]

Disaster at sea; Racing across the ocean in the SUPER Fountain competing in Gateway Marathon 2024

Andy Copeland

Full video of Raymarine sponsoered SUPER Fountain competing in the 2024 Ocean Cup Gateway Marathon 2024. Watch as the boat traveling over 100mph on its way to the Bahamas attempting to break the world record when disaster strikes and the boat suffers near total loss when it strike debris nearly sinking the boat. Both men were able to save themselves and the boat in a last ditch effort to get home. A must watch

Update: First I would like to thank everyone for the calls, texts, and messages. Cody and I are safe and sound but the boat suffered a major hit from debris in the water. It appears something hit under the throttle seat near the end of the first step and the bottom continued to peal towards the bow. I could feel the drag after the first impact but was hopeful it would remain intact. A minute or two after the first hit we crossed a small set of waves when a hole broke through and the boat immediately started taking in water. As you can hear from the live stream video I instructed Cody to turn around and head towards Florida. After the initial assessment we pulled the life raft because we would soon lose the boat taking in that amount of water. We were approximately 32 miles from Florida at the time. I did put out a distress call through the Raymarine USA raymic but the boat lost all power soon after. By a stroke of luck the turbomeca turbines stayed running because the were above the water that was sunk by the boat. About five minutes after we lost power the port engine began to surge and eventually shut itself off. At that point the coast guard was now hovering above us asking if we needed the hoist. I gave them a thumbs up because we were still under power with the starboard engine. By a second stroke of luck we noticed the driveshaft was spinning the water up to the exhaust and the exhaust was pushing out the water boat as fast as the hole was letting it in, so I realized we might be able to save the boat from sinking if the engine would stay running. The entire time Nikole was hovering over us in our helicopter and helped us navigate towards Florida using hand signals. We had no way to communicate with anyone but both of us had hope we would make it back to land. The first plan of action was to beach it on peanut Island to prevent losing the boat. When we finally got close enough for cell service I began texting Nikole and the team about our plan. The teams quick response got the trailer to the ramp and the police fire and EMS shut down the ramp to dedicate for our arrival and gave us the option to shoot for the trailer instead of beaching on a public beach. About a mile away from the inlet the starboard engine started surging and losing power but luckily sea tow had begun to stay parallel in case we lost power. Seconds after the engine shut down they had secured us to a tow rope and threw us pumps to keep the water pumping out of the boat. Sea tow got us through the inlet and landed us on our awaiting trailer. As our crew chief (Torey Dorell) pulled the boat out, the full extent of the damage revealed itself and the entire starboard side bottom was missing. It will take weeks to fully assess the damage and determine what the next step is. I would like to personally thank everyone for all of the support and this is only another chapter in our life of racing. I hope to see you all soon. Nikole and I are on the way to the airport to head back to OKC but I will connect with you all soon. Thank you.
Andy Copeland

 

[fund razor]

Crazy and interesting video. I didn't see a thing in the water. Glad they are ok.

Is that helmet fitment typical?
Seems like it would be hard to drive a boat with your left hand holding your helmet in place.

 

[Ratickle]

Funny, we were just talking about that at the races in Ocean City.

Tyler Miller bought 2 of those, used them one race and threw them away. Jay Muller had new ones just for Ocean City for both of his boys and himself. The same thing. He said it was rediculous trying to hold on to them and drive WHM in those seas. So, his will be tossed also most likely.

Tyler went to Bell helmets, cost less and fit better.

They all want to use the ones used by the airforce fighter pilots, but they are not legal for motorsports.

 

[Ratickle]

At the 20:12 mark you can see something in the water about 8' to starboard of the boat. Looks white kind of, can't really tell.

 

[fund razor]

At the 20:12 mark you can see something in the water about 8' to starboard of the boat. Looks white kind of, can't really tell.

I see it. Looks like something that would damage a prop, not peel a boat open. But at 100mph, and with odd forces at play, I guess anything is possible. When you see a boat with a hole in it in open water, you think delamination. I'm not suggesting that's what happened. I'm saying that's where the casual viewer's mind goes when there is no obvious object.

Glad things happened at a rate that they could deal with, and they saved the boat. Observing what was going on in the bilge and keeping the engine running as a pump was genius. Something like: "Toss the hatch." "Take it off?" "Throw it away."

 

[Ratickle]

Almost looks like something that is barely above water on the one end, but fades off into the water closer to the boat.

A sunken boat maybe?

 

[fund razor]

Maybe they will figure out what it was from the damage. Not that it matters (Nothing you can do about a hidden, submerged object. There isn't really a lesson to be learned here.) but it's a mystery.

Any idea how deep it was there? It was seemingly pretty far offshore.

 

[Ratickle]

If you go by this, "We were approximately 32 miles from Florida at the time". That is almost exactly half way across. That would mean, according to the charts, they were in approximately 2400 feet, 400 fathoms, or 750 meters of water depth, (depending on which chart I look at) :sifone:.

 

[Ratickle]

It would be almost smack in the middle of the Florida Current, so crap would be floating north from pretty much everywhere south.

 

[Ratickle]

I'm starting to think it was a Russian submarine they hit based on the media hype that one is falling apart leaving Cuba.......

Russian Submarine Appears to be Falling Apart

 

[fund razor]

Yeah, but aren't ALL Russian subs falling apart?

 

[Ratickle]

Especially after they get rammed by a Fountain built by Skater in the USA!!!!:USA: